HERAT, Afghanistan - Suspected Taliban gunmen shot dead a district chief in an ambush in western Afghanistan, officials said, as another official escaped a similar attack in the east of the country.

Afghan policemen in Kabul. Suspected Taliban gunmen shot dead a district chief in an ambush in western Afghanistan.[AFP]

Abdul Zahir, chief of Gulran district in western Herat province, was gunned down in his car while travelling to Herat city, the provincial capital on Wednesday, the interior ministry said on Thursday.

One of his bodyguards was wounded, ministry spokesmen Dad Mohammed Rasa said, adding that it was not clear whether the attackers were in vehicles or lying in wait at the roadside.

"The enemies of Afghanistan carried out this attack," Rasa told AFP, using the Afghan government's usual description for the ousted Taliban movement and its Islamist allies.

Also on Wednesday, armed men tried to kill Mohammad Mubeen, the chief of restive Barmal district in eastern Paktika province bordering Pakistan, but the official escaped unharmed.

"Our Barmal district chief was attacked by the enemy but he was not hit," provincial governor Mohammad Akram Khpolwak said.

The attackers fled after Mubeen's bodyguards returned fire for several minutes, he said.

The governor also blamed the attack on the Taliban, who were toppled by a US-led invasion in 2001.

The Taliban have since then been waging an insurgency which is in its bloodiest phase this year and which targets officials working for the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

The insurgency has claimed more than 3,700 lives this year, the bulk of them militants'.