One suicide bomber Saturday evening exploded his explosive-laden car near a police checkpoint in southern Afghan province of Kandahar, leaving 5 people dead and six others wounded, a police official said.

The police officer Mohammad Akbar told Xinhua on the spot that the incident took place at around 5:45 p.m. local time (1315 GMT) when a suicide attacker drove a car and blew himself off at one police checkpoint on Kandahar-Herat highway, some 20 kilometers west of Kandahar city.

"The blast killed three policemen and two civilians at the checkpoint while four more policemen and two other civilians were injured," Akbar said.

The police official said Canadian troops and Afghan police forces were looking over suspected vehicles on the highway when the bombing hit the checkpoint.

However, no casualties of foreign soldiers have been reported.

Akabar added that dead bodies and the wounded have been evacuated by helicopters to the military base of NATO forces.

No group or individuals have yet to claim responsibility for the attack.

This incident came just a day after a roadside bombing hit a vehicle of Canadian forces one the same highway leaving one Canadian soldier dead.

Spiraling conflicts and Taliban-linked insurgency have claimed more than 5,000 people with some 2,000 civilians, so far this year, despite over 70,000-strong international troops stationed in strife-torn Afghanistan.

(Xinhua News Agency December 28, 2008)