While meeting two members of the Taliban at his home, former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani was killed in an explosion, BBC News reported with the Associated Press confirming. Not only was Rabbani the former leader of Afghanistan, he is currently the head of Afghanistan's High Peace Council and was described by the outlet as the main leader of the opposition party. "Unconfirmed reports say he may have been killed by a suicide attacker," reports the BBC. He had previously been targeted by Taliban fighters wielding rocket-propelled grenades in 2009, but had escaped. The Guardian's live blog writes of his death: "It was Rabbani's task to try to to negotiate a political end to the war. However, the peace council had made little headway since it was formed a year ago."

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Erik Hayden