Suicide bombers strike Afghan governor's compound

Three suicide bombers blew themselves up inside the governor's compound of Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province today, killing five policemen, provincial council head Ahmad Wali Karzai said.

Karzai, who is the brother of President Hamid Karzai, said three policemen were also wounded.

Earlier, a police source had said one bomber blew himself up at the gate and the other two were believed to be inside the compound.

Canadian troops in a NATO-led security force cordoned off the road leading to the compound. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but Taliban militants frequently deploy multiple suicide bombers against government targets.

Kandahar, birthplace of the Taliban movement in the 1990s, is in a part of the country that has seen escalating attacks by the militants who were driven from the capital Kabul by US-backed Afghan forces in 2001.