Suspected Taleban fighters have killed a police chief and nine of his guards in an ambush in southern Afghanistan, a government official says. One of the attackers also died in the exchange of fire. News has only just emerged of the attack, which happened on Wednesday in a remote area of Kandahar province, about 400km south of the capital Kabul. It is the latest of a series of attacks by people believed to be linked to Afghanistan\'s former Taleban rulers. Almost 20 people have been killed in violence over the past three days, including seven who were shot dead earlier this week in south-eastern Afghanistan. The latest attack happened in an isolated part of Kandahar province. The police officer who died has been named as Yar Mohammed, who was responsible for the Mizan district of the neighbouring province of Zabul. Speaking to the BBC, Zabul\'s intelligence chief, Ahmed Zia Massood, said the police officer was travelling back through Kandahar through the district of Chinarto, when he and his body guards came under sustained fire. Zia Massood said it appeared to have been a well-planned ambush although one of the attackers was killed and another injured. They have also been blamed for another attack on Wednesday in Kandahar City, in which a bomb explosion near a US base injured a senior police officer and killed a civilian. People claiming to speak for the Taleban have called for a holy war against President Hamid Karzai and his American allies. Another group, Hizb-e-Islami Gulbuddin, led by former Mujahideen Commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has made similar statements. He has called on his supporters to follow the example of Iraqis resisting American troops. (BBC)