A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing Helmand province's deputy governor and five other people, officials said.

The bomber struck while people were praying inside the mosque in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal said.

Helmand's deputy governor, Pir Mohammad, was killed in the blast, said Nisar Ahmad, a provincial health official.

The blast killed five other people and wounded 11, Ahmad said.

Taliban regularly attack Afghan officials as part of their attempts to weaken the control of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai's government.

Helmand, the center of the world's opium and heroin production, is focus of intense clashes between militants and British, American and Afghan government forces.

The mosque blast happened hours after another suicide bomber in a car targeted an Afghan army bus in Kabul, killing one civilian and wounding four other people, officials said.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Afghan man carries bread as he walks past a taxi damaged in an explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008.

AP