A suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a police checkpoint and a bank in southern Afghanistan, one of two attacks in the heartland of the insurgency that killed 18 people over 24 hours.

The Taliban has launched a new operation targeting government and foreign forces in Afghanistan, a spokesman said today, as two policemen died in an ambush in the volatile south.

A suicide bomber rammed a car laden with explosives into a convoy carrying Westerners in the main southern city of Kandahar today, killing three Afghan civilians and wounding four others.