A close aide of Afghan President Hamid Karzai was shot dead in his Kabul home Sunday, broadcaster Tolonews reported.
Jan Mohammad Khan was the president's adviser and former governor of the southern province of Uruzgan, dpa reported.
Three gunmen stormed into Khan's home and killed him, the report said. The police were still engaged in a gun battle with the assailants, said Mohammad Zahir, the chief of the crime investigation branch.
"Jan Mohammad Khan may have been killed by the shooters," he told the German Press Agency dpa. Police have cordoned off the area, he said.
The killing follows the murder last week of the president's younger half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, by his bodyguard in Kandahar city.