At least nine people were killed and 15 others were injured as a roadside bomb blamed on the Taliban tore through a police vehicle in southern Afghanistan.

At least nine people were killed and 15 others were injured as a roadside bomb blamed on the Taliban tore through a police vehicle in southern Afghanistan at the weekend.

Officials said on Monday that the attack took place late Sunday in the Shahjoy district of Zabul province, on the main Kabul-Kandahar road which is a hotspot of the Taliban insurgency.

The attack killed three police including a commander and six civilians, Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar, the Zabul deputy governor, told AFP.

Fifteen other people, most of them civilian bystanders, were wounded in the attack.

Jawed Faisal, head of the Kandahar Media Office in the neighbouring province,  blamed the attack on the Taliban.