A suicide bomber killed 11 people, including nine police officers, in southern Afghanistan on Monday, the interior ministry said.

The bomber was on foot and detonated explosives attached to his body in a group of officers outside the main police headquarters in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand, a local police official said.

Two civilians were also killed, the interior ministry in Kabul said in a statement. Another 29 people, many of them police, were wounded.

In a separate attack in western Farah province on Monday, a would-be suicide bomber armed with a grenade killed a police officer guarding a compound , an official said.

The bomber was shot dead by other police as he tried to enter the compound and blow himself up, the official said.

Afghanistan has faced spiraling violence since 2008 by Taliban insurgents who have made a comeback after being driven out of power by U.S.-led forces in 2001.

Since the weekend, nine foreign soldiers have been killed in a series of separate Taliban raids, the deadliest week for foreign forces in recent months in Afghanistan.