In the first attack carried out by a suicide bomber in Kajaki district of Helmand province killed at least 12 policemen and wounded 20 others including civilians, officials said.

NATO forces accepted a number of foreign forces were also killed and wounded in this blast but they refused to share more details.

“This latest act of violence further confirms that the insurgency has declared outright war on the people of Afghanistan and will stop at nothing to continue to use terrorism and intimidation to advance their own malign and selfish ends.” The ISAF commander Gen. John Allen said.

In a separate incident in Helmand province, the chief of the spy department of Nad Ali district of this province, Wali Mohammad and his guards were killed by a remote controlled mine when the chief of the spy department walked out of his house, officials said.  

Helmand province has been the scene of bloodshed fights between the Afghan and ISAF forces and the Talban rebels operating in this province.

Recently ISAF forces handed over the security of three districts of this province to the Afghan security forces as part of the transition process aiming to hand over the security of the country to the Afghan security forces by 2014.