Afghan women's affairs official shot dead

The head of the women's affairs department for Afghanistan's eastern Lagham Province has been shot dead, Radio Liberty reported.

Local authorities say gunmen killed Nadia Sidiqi as she traveled to work on December 10 in the provincial capital, Mihtarlam.

Lagham Province police chief Ahmad Sherzad told AFP that he's confident the attackers will be caught.

Sidiqi took over the job after her predecessor, Hanifa Safi, was killed in July by a magnetic bomb attached to her car.

There is no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing, but assassinations are increasingly used by Taliban insurgents in their fight against Afghanistan's Western-backed government.