Afghanistan's election commission has postponed Saturday's elections in Kandahar province for a week, following a deadly attack there that killed at least two senior provincial officials, including its powerful police chief.

The Independent Election Commission's deputy spokesman, Aziz Ibrahimi, says the decision on the postponement was made to allow mourners to observe funeral rites for the slain police chief, Abdul Raziq, and others killed in the attack.

Along with Raziq, the province's intelligence chief and two policemen were killed. The condition of Kandahar's governor, Zalmay Wesa, who was wounded in the attack, was shrouded in secrecy. Security officials in the capital, Kabul, maintained Wesa was wounded but survived.

Raziq's funeral was being held Friday in Kandahar's holiest of shrines, Kherqa Mubarak, said to contain the cloak of Islam's Prophet Mohammed.

(AP)