Kabul: Unknown armed men on Saturday shot dead a counter-terrorism officer and his bodyguard in Afghanistan's Badakhshan province, an official said.

"Mohammad Adil was on routine patrol around Faizabad city when unknown men opened fire killing him along with one of his bodyguards," Xinhua news agency quoted the official as saying.

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Badakhshan province has been the scene of Taliban-led insurgency over the past a few years.

--IANS