Provincial police chief killed in south Afghan attack

The acting provincial police chief of southern Afghanistan's Uruzgan province was killed in an attack overnight Saturday, an official source said on Sunday morning. "Police Chief Gulab Khan was killed along with a government official following gunmen attack in surrounding areas of provincial capital Tirin Khot late last night,"the source told Xinhua anonymously.

An investigation was launched into the incident and further details would be revealed to public later in the day, he added.

No group has claimed responsibility yet for the attack, but the Taliban insurgent group routinely claims responsibility for such attacks.

Khan was appointed as the acting police chief after Uruzgan's former police chief Matiullah Khan, a key anti-Taliban figure, was killed in a Taliban suicide bombing last month.

The Taliban, who ruled the country before they were ousted by a U.S.-led invasion in late 2001, renewed armed insurgency, staging ambush and suicide attacks, killing combatants as well as civilians.

They have intensified attacks over the past couple of months as the Afghan security forces assumed the full security responsibility from NATO-led troops since Jan. 1.