MEHTAR LAM, Afghanistan, (Reuters) – A suicide  bomber killed at least 23 people in eastern Afghanistan,  including the country’s powerful deputy head of intelligence,  in an attack yesterday the Taliban claimed as a high-profile  assassination.

With violence rising, Afghanistan has been in political  limbo since Aug. 20 elections. The poll was a major test for  incumbent Hamid Karzai after eight years in power and for U.S.  President Barack Obama’s new regional strategy to defeat the  Taliban.

Lutfullah Mashal, governor of Laghman province who escaped  injury in the latest attack, told Reuters the bomber burst from  a shop and blew himself up while officials were getting into  cars outside a mosque in the provincial capital Mehtar Lam.

He said the 23 dead included two provincial officials as  well as Abdullah Laghmani, deputy head of the powerful National  Directorate for Security and one of the highest-ranking  security officials in Karzai’s government to be killed.

“It is obviously the work of the Taliban who are trying to  destabilise Afghanistan by trampling Islamic values,” Mashal  said. He said 36 people were wounded.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the Islamist  group had sent a suicide bomber to carry out the Mehtar Lam  attack, a deliberate attempt to kill Laghmani.

“Laghmani was one of the most important targets for the  Taliban that we successfully eliminated,” Mujahid said by  telephone from an undisclosed location.

Afghanistan’s election commission later released new  partial results from the presidential election which showed  Karzai maintaining his lead over his main rival, former foreign  minister Abdullah Abdullah, 47.3 percent to 32.6 percent.

The tally, with more than 60 percent of polling stations  counted, suggests Karzai could be on course to a win in a  single round, although the outcome is still close.

Votes have yet to be tallied from many parts of the south  where Karzai draws strong support, and where Abdullah accuses  the president’s camp of stuffing ballot boxes on a massive  scale.

A second round run-off must be held if no candidate wins  more than 50 percent, most likely in early October.