UPDATE - Afghanistan: 9 dead, 60 injured in Kandahar car bombing

UPDATES WITH CASUALTIES, STATEMENT BY TALIBAN; ADDS DETAILS; EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan (AA) - A massive suicide car bombing followed by gunfight at the police headquarters on Thursday killed at least nine people in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province, a hospital source said.

The source at Mirwais Regional Hospital in Kandahar, who asked not to be named, told Anadolu Agency that 60 people were also injured in the Taliban-claimed attack.

According to multiple sources at the police headquarters, the attack began at around 4.30 p.m. local time (1200 GMT).

Baheer Ahmadi, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the clashes ended and a clean-up operation was underway.

The Taliban took responsibility for the attack. Qari Yosuf Ahmadi, the militant group spokesman, said in a social media post that many of their fighters wearing suicide vest stormed the police headquarters after the bombing.

Known as the birthplace of the Taliban movement, Kandahar province witnessed relative peace for years under the fierce police chief late Gen. Abdul Raziq, who got killed in a Taliban-claimed attack in October last year.