Kabul - A suicide attack killed two policemen and wounded three others in southern Afghanistan, while elsewhere in the country eight police officers were killed and seven others wounded in separate incidents, officials said on Wednesday.

A suicide bomber who had strapped explosives around his body targeted a police vehicle in Gerishk district of the southern province of Helmand on Wednesday morning, killing himself and two policemen, district police chief Khair Mohammad Sheja, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Sheja, who was the target of the attack and escaped unharmed, said that three other policemen were wounded.

"As I got off the car, the bomber attacked us, but I managed to go inside the police headquarters building," he said.

Meanwhile, Taliban fighters attacked a police outpost in the eastern province of Kunar on late Tuesday, killing five officers and wounding seven others, Abdul Jalal, the provincial police chief, said.

He said police also inflicted casualties on the Taliban side in the clash, which took place near the border with Pakistan, but could not provide any figures.

In the western province of Badghis on Tuesday, three policemen were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb, Ali Khan Hussainzada, a police official in the western region, said.

The poorly trained and equipped Afghan forces often come under Taliban attack in the southern provinces, where Taliban militants are the most active.

More than 900 police were killed in Taliban-led attacks last year. (dpa)