Mr Hameedi returned to Afghanistan in 2006 at the request of President Karzai The mayor of the volatile Afghan city of Kandahar, Ghulam Haidar Hameedi, has been killed in a suicide attack, officials say.
The attacker detonated explosives in his turban as the mayor made an address at the city hall, police said. Two weeks ago, President Hamid Karzai's influential half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, was killed in the same city.
The violence comes as Nato troops begin the handover of security to local forces in parts of the country.
The Taliban said they had carried out the attack.
Stability fears Correspondents say Mr Hameedi had been speaking to tribal elders who had come to discuss a land dispute when the attack took place.
The attacker infiltrated the group and detonated the explosives. Mr Hameedi was killed instantly, while the attacker and a civilian were also killed.
The mayor had ordered the destruction of about 200 houses in the Loyawala area of Kandahar as they had been built illegally, and two children had been killed as they were knocked down on Tuesday, security sources said.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the Taliban had killed the mayor to avenge the deaths of the children in the demolition work, according to the Associated Press news agency.The assassination is the latest in a string of attacks on influential officials in the country.
Earlier this month, President Karzai's brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, one of the most powerful men in southern Afghanistan, was killed in Kandahar city.
His death prompted renewed fears over stability in Kandahar, seen as a critical area in the fight against the Taliban.
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