Five Afghan police dead in suicide blast

At least five Afghan policemen were killed Sunday by a suicide car bombing in front of the police chief's office in the southern city of Lashkar Gah, local officials said.

The attack came days after control of security in the city passed from foreign to Afghan forces in the first wave of the transition process which will see all international troops leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Some experts question the ability of Afghan troops and police to protect their country against attacks from the Taliban and other insurgents.

"Five or six policemen at least were killed," said Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for Helmand's provincial governor.

"Twelve people were wounded including three civilians, one of whom was a 10-year-old boy. It was a suicide car bomb and was very heavy."

The blast happened in front of the heavily-secured office of the police chief as a police vehicle entered the compound, he added.

A doctor in the local hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, said so far it had received six bodies and 13 wounded in the wake of the explosion.

"The wounded are being treated and we've made calls to families of the deceased to collect the bodies," he said.

The Taliban published a statement on their website claiming responsibility for the attack.

The blast comes amid ongoing concerns over the ability of the Afghan security forces, which are receiving huge sums of money from the international community in a bid to build them up.

There are currently at least 126,000 police in Afghanistan and thousands more are being trained up in programmes financed by countries in the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

However, they have faced allegations of corruption and also struggle with factors including low literacy rates among recruits.

There are currently roughly 140,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, of which about 100,000 are from the United States.

Some nations have already started withdrawing troops ahead of the 2014 deadline.

The attack follows a spate of assassinations in southern Afghanistan in recent weeks, including that of President Hamid Karzai's powerful half-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, in neighbouring Kandahar province.

Karzai was killed by his bodyguard earlier this month, while Kandahar mayor Ghulam Haidar Hameedi was assassinated last week by a suicide bomber who hid explosives in his turban.

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