Ten Afghan police were killed as their vehicle struck on Thursday a Taliban bomb attack in southern Afghanistan’s restive Helmand province.

Ten Afghan police were killed as their vehicle struck on Thursday a Taliban bomb attack in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province.

The killed police were members of the US-funded Afghan Local Police (ALP) set up last year and touted as key to a handover of security control, which will see all occupation combat troops leave Afghanistan in theory by the end of 2014.

"Ten local police were killed and one was injured after their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand province," provincial governor's spokesman Daud Ahmadi said.
"The police were on their way back from a recruitment center."
Three of the ALP officers were newly recruited, he added.

For its part, Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the attack.
"Our mujahedeen fighters attacked a police vehicle and as a result 10 police were killed including a police commander," said spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi.