AFGHANISTAN - Sept 10 - Governor Killed In Attack.

A suicide bomber assassinates an Afghan provincial governor, as NATO says it killed almost 100 more Taliban fighters in its biggest offensive against the resurgent extremist group. Gov. Hakim Taniwal, a former mines minister who once lectured at an Australian university, is the first provincial chief killed since the Taliban fell five years ago, although there have been many assassination attempts around the country. His driver also died when the bomber threw himself on the governor of Paktia province, bordering Pakistan, as he was entering his car, police said. The killing came as NATO said its forces and Afghan soldiers killed 94 Taliban insurgents in a battle in the southern province of Kandahar, the Taliban's heartland, in its biggest offensive against the rejuvenated movement. Backed by close air support, the militants were killed in two areas of Kandahar in four encounters that started Sept 9 and lasted until just after dawn Sept 10, NATO said in a statement. It did not say if there were any casualties among NATO or Afghan forces in the fighting in Zari and Panjwai districts. NATO has encountered heavier-than-expected fighting since taking over southern Afghanistan from US-led troops on July 31 to allow Washington to reduce its forces. If true, the latest casualties would bring to more than 400 the number of Taliban killed since NATO launched Operation Medusa just over a week ago. The Taliban, who have dismissed NATO's casualty figures in Operation Medusa as propaganda, also rejected the latest toll. "They are lying. If their figure was true, then they would have driven the Taliban from Panjwai and Zari by now", Qari Muhammad Yousuf, a Taliban spokesman, said by satellite phone from an undisclosed location. Yousuf said he had no information if the Taliban, who are usually behind suicide attacks, killed the governor. About 20 NATO soldiers have been killed in the offensive, 14 of them British troops whose plane crashed. On Sept 9 night, two coalition soldiers were killed - one during the Medusa offensive and another in combat in adjacent Zabul province. Panjwai and Zari, flat, desert areas, lie southwest of Kandahar city and have been the scene of a series of battles between foreign forces and the Taliban this year. Afghanistan is wracked by the worst bloodshed since the Taliban's ouster. Defense chiefs from NATO's 26 nations agreed they needed more troops and fewer limitations on the use of their forces to step up the fight against the Taliban. But despite demands from commanders on the ground, they made no pledges of extra troops after two days of talks in Warsaw. NATO officials said national defense chiefs had agreed to consult with their capitals on reinforcements. They will meet again on Wednesday at NATO military headquarters in Mons, southern Belgium, for a so-called force generation conference aimed at matching the call by alliance commanders for between 2,000 and 2,500 extra troops. Military commanders and analysts say the daily offensives by the Taliban and allies such as al-Qaeda are now deadlier than the fighting in Iraq.