6 die in Afghan police centre attack

 The attack was the latest to target Afghanistan’s Western-backed security forces just a few months before US-led Nato troops start limited withdrawals after nearly 10 years of war against the Taliban.

“Insurgents have blown up an ambulance vehicle full of explosives which killed six members of the national security forces and wounded 10 more, including one civilian,” the Kandahar governor’s office said. Three insurgents, who were thought to have been armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, were also killed, it added.

A local hospital said it had so far received 14 wounded, including an 11-year-old boy, and one body. An AFP reporter at the scene reported two loud explosions and gunfire, but it was not immediately clear if the fighting was over. The attack took place at a complex just outside Kandahar which is used for police training as well as army and police recruitment.

A new police headquarters for the city is also being built there, following a Taliban attack on the previous office in February which left 19 people dead. Kandahar is the de facto capital of southern Afghanistan and the birthplace of the Taliban militia waging an insurgency against US-led troops. Local police and officials are frequently targeted.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault. Spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP that four of their fighters had entered the police centre, saying it was “currently on fire and there is a lot of smoke from the compound”.

The attack is the latest to target Afghanistan’s roughly 120,000-strong police, who will play a growing role in the country’s security as international troops start a limited withdrawal from seven relatively peaceful areas in July.

Last month, the police chief of the northern province of Kunduz was killed by a suicide bombing also claimed by the Taliban.

Nato-led forces say the Kandahar area, seen as strategically important due to its strong Taliban links and proximity to the Pakistani border, is safer following intense fighting in recent months despite recent attacks. Around 130,000 Nato  troops, about two-thirds of them from the US, are in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban and other groups.