KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide attacker fatally shot a senior intelligence official Wednesday, then blew himself up as guards tried to arrest him in eastern Afghanistan, an official said. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

Maj. Mohammed Isa Khan, deputy intelligence chief of Khost province, was killed in the attack, said provincial government spokesman Hayatullah Taniwal. No one else was hurt in the explosion.

The assailant stopped Khan's car as he drove to his office in Khost city, 90 miles south of Kabul, Taniwal said.

"When (Khan) opened the window to talk to him, he pulled a gun out from under his blanket and opened fire," Taniwal said.

The man tried to flee, but three of Khan's bodyguards gave chase. "Then he blew himself up," Taniwal said.

Syful Ardil, a Taliban spokesman, identified the attacker as Hafiz Halal, 24, a Taliban fighter from Khost.

Ardil told The Associated Press by satellite phone that Khan was attacked because he had circulated propaganda about the Taliban and had reported about them to the U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

The hard-line Taliban movement, which was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion in late 2001, has warned of a wave of suicide attacks in Afghan cities, a new tactic in their campaign against foreign troops and the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

Two soldiers — one Canadian, one British — from the international security force in Kabul were killed in separate suicide attacks last month.

Meanwhile, a governor in another eastern Afghan province said Wednesday that a day earlier he had escaped unhurt from a separate bomb attack he blamed on Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents.

Sayed Fazel Akbar, governor of Kunar province, said a remote-controlled bomb exploded Tuesday on a road near the provincial capital, Asadabad, as his vehicle was passing. He said the vehicle sustained minor damage, but no one was injured.

Akbar alleged he was targeted because of his support of Karzai and U.S.-led coalition forces.

"I was going to inaugurate a school built by the coalition forces when the bomb exploded," he told The Associated Press by telephone.