LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan – A suicide attacker killed 10 Afghan policemen and a child in the southern city of Lashkar Gah on Sunday when he detonated a car bomb, the provincial governor's spokesman said.
The attack in the heart of a city which was recently handed over to Afghan security forces was a reminder of the Taliban's reach, even at a time of stepped up pressure from US and Afghan troops.
The explosion happened near the police chief's compound in the provincial capital and appeared to target a joint Afghan police and army patrol.
Twelve people were wounded in the blast, nine of them policemen and three civilians, said Daoud Ahmadi, spokesman for the Helmand provincial governor.
"The information given by the crime scene unit of the police is that 10 policemen and a young kid have been killed in the suicide car bomb attack," Ahmadi said.
It comes after a string of destabilizing assassinations of high-profile southern leaders, including President Hamid Karzai's younger brother, and just days after suicide attackers with guns killed 19 people, most of them children.
Afghan forces took over security responsibilities in Lashkar Gah this month, the most contentious of the first seven areas for which foreign troops handed over duties.
The gradual transition of security control to Afghan forces is due to be completed by the end of 2014.
Helmand province has been the site of some of the most vicious fighting of the war. Far more foreign troops have died there than in any other province and there are still several Helmand districts dominated by the Taliban.
Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since US-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government in late 2001, with high foreign troop deaths and record civilian casualties.
Roadside mines killed 17 civilians in Helmand province on Friday when a minibus and tractor separately struck explosives.
