KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber killed the police chief of Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province on Friday after penetrating tight defences at the police headquarters, a spokesman for the provincial governor said.    

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"Initial information shows that the police chief and two other policemen were killed inside his office," said spokesman Zalmay Ayoubi.  

Southern Kandahar province is the birthplace of the Taliban and their spiritual heartland, and has seen heavy fighting over the last year as a beefed up NATO-led force tries to reclaim control of the city and the farmlands that surround it.