KABUL (Reuters) – Gunmen killed an adviser to Afghan President Hamid Karzai in a gunbattle in Kabul on Sunday, officials said, hours after a long-promised transition process from foreign troops to Afghan control began under a shroud of secrecy.

The attack on the Kabul home of Jan Mohammad Khan, a former governor of Uruzgan province in Afghanistan’s volatile south, came days after the killing of Ahmad Wali Karzai, a half-brother of President Hamid Karzai, in southern Kandahar province.

The assassination of Ahmad Wali Karzai, the most powerful man in Kandahar, left a dangerous political vacuum in the Taliban’s heartland in the south and sent a chilling warning to other political leaders about the reach of the Taliban.

“This is another blow,” a senior Western diplomat, who asked not to be identified, said soon after the attack on Khan’s house on Sunday night.

Violence has spiked across Afghanistan in the past year even as NATO-led troops made gains against insurgents in the south, with civilian and military deaths at record levels.

Even as their strength has been diminished, Taliban and other insurgents have shown a remarkable adaptability, changing their tactics despite significant losses.

Barely three weeks ago, up to nine Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers killed 12 people in a night-time attack on Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel, a raid lasting five hours that ended only when NATO helicopters counter-attacked.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan began the long-publicised transition to control of its own security amid secrecy, not fanfare, on Sunday, a reminder of how tense the country is as foreign troops start to head home and violence spreads.

Ministers flew to central Bamiyan province, one of the most peaceful places in Afghanistan, for a ceremony that was not announced in advance, did not run live on any TV channel and to which only a small number of media outlets were invited.

The handover from New Zealand forces to Afghan police — there is no Afghan army presence in the province — is the very first step in a years-long national transition that aims to put Afghan police and army in control across the country by the end of 2014.

The process is critical to Afghanistan’s long-term security at a time when Western nations are wearying of the cost in lives and cash of the near decade-long war, both the Afghan government and its Western backers say.

Yet the president’s office, which is coordinating the transition, other key ministries and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, all remained silent about Sunday’s handover more than six hours after it began.

The Taliban have threatened to target transition events, and attacks have been a serious security concern for weeks.

It was left to the Bamiyan provincial governor’s spokesman, Abdulrahman Ahmadi, to confirm transition was under way.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan began the long-publicized transition to control of its own security amid secrecy, not fanfare, on Sunday, a reminder of how volatile the country is even as NATO troop drawdowns get under way.

Ministers flew to central Bamiyan province, one of the most peaceful places in Afghanistan, for a ceremony that was not announced in advance, did not run live on any TV channel and to which only a small number of media outlets were invited.

NATO will hand security over to the Afghan police and army in a gradual process due to be completed by the end of 2014, paving the way for most foreign troops to return home.

Security sources said there were serious fears of attacks in some of the seven areas chosen for the first phase of transition as the Taliban seek to underline their reach.

A spokesman for the Bamiyan provincial governor said a ceremony to mark the Afghan police taking the lead from New Zealand troops stationed there had begun at around 9 a.m. (0430 GMT) and was continuing into the afternoon.

There is no Afghan army presence in Bamiyan province, but all the other transition ceremonies are expected to involve both the police and army taking over from foreign troops.

“The transition process has officially began in Bamiyan today and this is a national process we have been waiting for,” said Abdulrahman Ahmadi, the spokesman for the Bamiyan governor.