The BBC's Quentin Sommerville, in Kabul, says that this type of targeted assassination is a tactic that has been used on a number of occasions by the Taliban.

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He said she wanted to know if it was "a targeted assassination of a British citizen committed by agents of a foreign state in the sovereign territory of the United Kingdom".

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There is no doubt that the Taliban has a very targeted assassination program against people who are working with the coalition and people who are associated with the Afghan government, even at local levels.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing on Afghanistan-Pakistan Annual Review

Ever since Libya's leader was himself targeted for assassination by Muslim radicals (at least twice in the 1990s), he has been one of their keenest foes.

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Mr Uribe's first DAS chief, Jorge Noguera, is in jail and facing conspiracy charges for allegedly colluding with right-wing paramilitaries and providing them with information on union activists who were later targeted for assassination.

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In addition to riot squads, a crack team of commandos stood by in the shadows - a response to Mahathir's earlier claim that some people had targeted him for assassination.

CNN: FIGHTING WORDS