KANDAHAR: The police chief of southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province has been killed in a suicide attack at the city's police headquarters, officials said Friday. “A suicide attacker detonated himself at the police headquarters. The police chief has been martyred,” provincial spokesman Zalmai Ayubi said. The deputy police chief of Kandahar said that the attack on his boss, Khan Mohammad Mujahid, had also injured two other Afghan police officers. “The suicide attacker had strapped explosives to his body,” deputy chief Shir Shah said. “He detonated himself at the gate of Kandahar police headquarters. Police chief Khan Mohammad Mujahid has been martyred, (and) two policemen have been injured.” Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban, a focus for foreign-led troops battling the rebels' nearly decade-long insurgency, and the scene of frequent attacks against police and officials. The killing is the latest in a string of attacks on the 120,000-strong police force, who are due to take on more responsibility for security ahead of the scheduled withdrawal of international combat troops in 2014. Last month, the police chief of the northern province of Kunduz was killed in a suicide bombing claimed by the Taliban. Last week six Afghan security personnel were killed as Taliban gunmen detonated a bomb hidden in an ambulance during an attack on a police centre near Kandahar. In February, 19 people, including 15 police and an intelligence agent, were killed in an attack on a police office. – Agence France
