Gun battles, bombing as security handed over in key Afghan city

Afghan insurgents launched attacks in provincial capitals in the country's north and south on Wednesday while foreign troops handed over security control in another key city as part of a process designed to display the strength of Afghan forces.
Gunmen attacked a police station in southern Kandahar city and killed its commander during a nine-hour gun battle. In northern Mazar-i-Sharif - one of seven areas to be handed over to Afghan control this week - a bomb planted on a bicycle killed up to five civilians, including a child, and wounded up to 12, police said.
The attacks in volatile Kandahar and relatively less violent Mazar-i-Sharif were a reminder of the challenges facing the Afghan army and police as they kick off a transition that aims to put them in control of the country by the end of 2014.
"Three policemen were killed and six more wounded when two gunmen attacked police district one," Abdul Razziq, chief of police in Kandahar province, said after the fighting ended and the two Taliban gunmen were killed.
Soon after the Kandahar attack, Afghan forces took control of security in Lashkar Gah, the capital of neighbouring Helmand province and the most contentious of the areas to be handed over this week. Mazar-i-Sharif is due to be handed over on Saturday.
Speaking after the Lashkar Gah handover ceremony, Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak described Afghanistan taking control of its own security as "a restoration of our honour".
President Hamid Karzai has long said he wants Afghanistan to provide its own security. Western nations, tired of the cost of the war in lives and money, are racing to beef up Afghan forces so their troops can return home.
However, worsening violence in recent days has cast a shadow over the start of the transition. On Tuesday, a bomb exploded near a police station outside Lashkar Gah.
A civil ceremony with speeches in Lashkar Gah was followed by a military ceremony, at the end of which Nato troops took a salute as a symbolic departure. But they will remain in bases a few kilometres away from the city, ready to help out if needed.