Afghan authorities say two gunmen on a motorcycle have shot dead an intelligence official in southern Afghanistan.

Officials say Kandahar's deputy intelligence chief, identified in local media as Azizollah Noori, was killed Monday night.  The attackers have not been caught.

The Afghan Islamic Press reports that a Taliban spokesman has claimed responsibility for the assassination in a phone conversation with one of its reporters.

There has been a recent spike in the killing of pro-government individuals in Kandahar, an area with a heavy presence of Taliban militants.

In another development, NATO says an Afghan man received head and chest injuries Monday when NATO troops fired a warning shot at a car speeding toward a checkpoint in the Sangin district of restive Helmand province.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force issued a statement Tuesday, saying the troops verbally warned the driver to slow down and fired mini-flares.  Then, they fired the warning shot that appears to have ricocheted into the vehicle.