Suicide bomb kills 21 police in Afghan south

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A Taliban suicide bomber killed 21 police in southern Afghanistan on Monday, the government said, one of the deadliest attacks on the force in recent months.

The bomber, wearing a police uniform, made his way into a police compound in Tirin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan province, and blew up explosives attached to his body, Uruzgan police chief Juma Gul Hemat told Reuters.

"As a result of the suicide attack on a police unit ... 21 police were martyred and eight more wounded," the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack.

Separately, the Defense Ministry said Afghan troops arrested three would be suicide bombers on Monday in another part of Uruzgan, which like most of the volatile south is an area of high Taliban activity.

The European Union, which runs an international police training mission in Afghanistan, condemned the attack and vowed to continue the effort.

"I ... wish to express my solidarity to the Afghan authorities and Afghanistan's National Police," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in a statement.

"The EU will continue its commitment and support to the development of the Afghan National Police."

The European Union has vowed to double the size of the training mission but has struggled to provide more than the 180 foreign officers currently deployed, even though it has been repeatedly flagged by Western policymakers as a vital initiative.

The United States is currently considering requests from commanders for up to around 25,000 more U.S. troops to be sent to Afghanistan, most of them to the south where mainly British, Canadian and Dutch troops are struggling to contain the Taliban insurgency.

Dutch and Australian troops are stationed in Uruzgan.

Some extra U.S. troops have already begun arriving in Afghanistan, including 3,700 soldiers from a combat brigade, that deployed last month.

(Reporting by Ismail Sameem in Kandahar and David Brunnstrom in Brussels; Writing by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Charles Dick)