An Afghan police officer stands guard at the scene of a suicide attack. - AP Photo.

KABUL: An Afghan official says a suicide car bomber has killed five people including a local district chief in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan.

The governor of Kandahar's spokesman Zalmai Ayubi says the top official of the province's Panjwayi district was traveling in a car with his two sons and two bodyguards when the bomber rammed him with a vehicle packed with explosives. Ayubi says all five were killed in the Thursday afternoon explosion.

Fazluddin Agha is the latest in a long string of government officials assassinated by militants trying to undermine the US-backed Afghan government.

Kandahar provincial council member Agha Lalia member says nine civilians also were wounded in the explosion, which occurred on a road between Panjwayi district and Kandahar city.