KABUL, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) foiled a suicide bombing attempt Sunday evening as they shotdown a suicide bomber in front of the ANSF compound in southern Afghanistan's Zabul province, an official said on Monday.

    Ghulab Shah Alikhil, deputy provincial governor of Zabul, told Xinhua that one suicide bomber attempted to enter the ANSF compound when one guard stopped him and gave a warning shoot.

    "The guard shot a second bullet after the attacker ignored the warning and kept going forward," Alikhil said. "The second bullet hit the head of attacker and killed him."

    ANSF checked the dead body and found around 10 kg explosive material was strapped to it, he said.

    However, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, the purported Taliban spokesman, told a completely different story to Xinhua on the suicide attack via phone from an unknown hideout, saying one Taliban fighter fromQalat city, capital of Zabul, carried out the assault successfully,killing 10 ANSF soldiers.

    Meanwhile, Abudul Qayum Pakhula, the chief of Health Departmentin southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province, on Monday confirmed that three more policemen died of injuries sustained in the two suicide bombings targeted Kandahar police headquarters Sunday afternoon, bringing the death toll to five, all policemen.

    Taliban insurgents have already claimed responsibility for the blasts leaving 40 people dead and wounded.

    Taliban outfits, whose loyalists raided Kandahar jail in June 2008 and secured the release of more than 1,000 inmates including some 400 insurgents, often carried out such attacks against government interests despite some 70,000 international troops have been deployed in Afghanistan.

    Conflicts and spiraling insurgency have claimed the lives of more than 3,700 people, mostly militants, so far this year in the war-torn nation.