A suicide bomber killed 11 people, including nine police officers, in southern Afghanistan today, a police official said.
The bomber was on foot and detonated explosives attached to his body in a group of officers outside the main police headquarters in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand, today, a local police official said.
Two civilians were also killed, the interior ministry in Kabul said in a statement. Another 29 people, many of them police, were wounded.
A would-be suicide bomber armed with a grenade killed a police officer guarding a compound in a separate attack in western Farah province today, an official said.
The bomber was shot dead by other police as he tried to enter the compound and blow himself up, the official said.
Afghanistan has faced growing violence since 2008 by Taliban insurgents who have made a comeback in recent years after being driven out of power by US-led forces in 2001.
Since the weekend, nine foreign soldiers have been killed in a series of separate Taliban raids, the deadliest week for foreign forces in recent months in Afghanistan.
Some 70,000 foreign soldiers under the command of Nato and the US military, along with tens of thousands of Afghans in government forces, are struggling to defeat the insurgents who have managed to spread the size and scope of their activities since last year.
The Obama administration plans to send an extra 17,000 soldiers this year to stabilise the country, which some Western politicians and analysts fear may slide back into anarchy.
Reuters