A firefight erupted in Kandahar, the former stronghold of Taliban in south Afghanistan Monday, leaving seven police including Matiullah Qati, the provincial chief police dead, head of provincial council Ahmad Wali Karzai said.

"The clash took place between a group of private security forces and Afghan police forces at 11:00 a.m. local time (0630 GMT) . As a result, seven police including provincial police chief were killed," Wali Karzai told Xinhua.

Karzai further said that six more policemen sustained injuries.

Meantime, a police officer at the site of incident who declined to be identified said that the US forces were attempting to get a detainee free, but Afghan police resisted which led to firefight and the killing of seven policemen.

However, no independent source was immediately available to verify the reason for the eruption of bloody clash.

(Xinhua News Agency June 29, 2009)