At least 12 people, including seven civilians, were killed in Taliban’s attack on Kandahar police headquarters on Thursday, officials from provincial hospital said.
The hospital officials also said that 60 others including 40 security force members were wounded in the attack.
Kandahar police headquarters came under attack at around 4:40pm on Thursday when a car bomb was detonated outside the headquarters and gunmen started firing at security forces.
Kandahar police at around 7:00pm said the attack has ended.
Kandahar governor office meanwhile said two police members were killed in clashes with the Taliban fighters and three others were wounded.
The governor’s office also said that nine civilians, including women and children, were killed and 80 others were wounded.
President Ashraf Ghani in a statement condemned the attack and said the Afghan government is seeking ways for peace but the Taliban by such attacks shows that they do not want peace and stability.
Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
The assault comes amid a series of peace talks between Washington and the Taliban that both sides say are making progress, but which so far have yielded no reduction in violence in the gruelling Afghan conflict.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said the afternoon attack in Afghanistan´s second-largest city started with a car bomb, then saw gunmen storm the police compound.
"A number of mujahideen equipped with heavy and small arms breached the headquarters and launched their operations inside," he said.
Baheer Ahmadi, the Kandahar governor´s spokesman, said in a statement that 11 people had been killed, including nine civilians and two police officers, while another 80 -- including women and children -- were wounded.
Interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said eight attackers were involved. Two blew themselves up, while the remaining six were "cornered in a building".
Hayatullah Hayat, the provincial governor for Kandahar, said Afghan security forces had launched a "clean-up operation" to see if any attackers were remaining.
"The fighting is over now. Some vehicles were burnt. Now the Afghan army and US helicopters are hovering in the area," police chief Tadin Khan told AFP.
Pictures on social media showed a huge plume of smoke rising over Kandahar, and Hayat said about six trucks carrying commercial goods had burnt.
The assault comes just one day after two Afghan soldiers -- who were really Taliban operatives -- fatally shot an Afghan colonel in Ghazni province.
