The police chief in the key southern Afghan province of Kandahar was killed by a Taliban suicide bomber yesterday along with two of his bodyguards, officials said.

The killings at the police headquarters in Kandahar city are a serious blow to security in the province, seen as the birthplace of the Taliban and a pivotal battleground in the near ten-year war against the Islamist militants.

They are the latest in a wave of insurgent attacks against the 120,000-strong Afghan police, who are due to take on more responsibility for security ahead of the planned withdrawal of foreign combat troops in 2014.

“A suicide attacker detonated himself at the police headquarters. The police chief has been martyred,” provincial spokes-man Zalmai Ayubi said.