Kandahar, Afghanistan - A suicide attacker walked into a district government compound in southern Afghanistan and blew himself up on Monday, killing eight people and wounding six others, police said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast in the Dand district of the southern province of Kandahar. The province is a stronghold of the extremist Taliban militia behind a growing insurgency.
"The suicide attacker was on foot and he entered the citizen registration department and detonated (his explosives)," said the police commander for southern Afghanistan, General Ghulam Ali Wahdat.
Five police officer and three civilians were killed, he said.
Another official had said earlier that two policemen and six civilians were killed. Six people, including the district police chief, were wounded, said the Kandahar government spokesperson Zalmai Ayobi.
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The compound is the government headquarters of Dand, which is just south of the city of Kandahar, and includes administration offices and police headquarters.
The Taliban were in government between 1996 and 2001 when they were removed in a US-led invasion.
They are now waging an insurgency, said to be directed largely from sanctuaries across the border in Pakistan, that makes heavy use of suicide and other bomb blasts.
There were a record number of attacks last year, with nearly 2 200 civilians killed in attacks and military action, according to the United Nations. - AFP
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