Taleban rebels have launched attacks on police across the south of Afghanistan, killing at least 10 and kidnapping 40 after overrunning a town.

The escalating violence this year has already claimed around 500 lives, just as the last of 3,000 British troops finish arriving in troubled Helmand province.

In the southern province of Zabul, which borders Kandahar, where a further 1,000 British troops are based, Deputy Police Chief Mohammad Rasoul was killed when Taleban rebels fired a rocket propelled grenade into his car.

The attack, which injured four other people including two senior provincial officials, happened late yesterday as Mr Rasoul was rushing to the site of a Taleban ambush that had claimed the lives of at least 10 highway police.

"They were part of a reinforcement sent to help a group of highway police who had come under Taleban attack on a road of Zabul," said Yousuf Stanizai, the Interior Ministry spokesman.

In Uruzgan province, which neighbours Helmand, Taleban rebels took over the town of Chora before leaving several hours later setting police cars alight.

Insurgents in Afghanistan have increasingly been fighting government forces face to face and winning.

The raid in Zabul came hours after the Taliban attacked a police base in Chora district of neighbouring Uruzgan province and abducted up to 40 policemen.

A Reuters reporter received a phone call from an unknown person who described himself as Mullah Ahmad, a Taleban commander, and said the militants had taken the police hostage and the Taliban’s leadership would decide their fate.

He said militants had killed 12 police in the attack before kidnapping the others.

The Taleban has repeatedly said that anyone working for the Afghan government is a legitimate target and will be killed. It is unlikely the police will emerge from their kidnap ordeal alive.

A Taleban commander interviewed by The Times earlier this month, said: "We are hunting every individual who supports this imposed democracy. We will also hunt the puppet Afghans who are the rented bicycle for the infidels."

The kidnapping of 40 police will be particularly worrying for Afghan police, as sources in Helmand have revealed that Taleban rebels have been dressing as police to carry out well orchestrated executions. The equipment they will have obtained through this latest raid could easily be put to deadly effect.

Nasir Ahmad, 19, a police officer in the central police station in Lashkar Gah, told The Times: "It’s a big problem. During the night the Taleban are wearing our uniforms and killing government employees."

Baghlan Hayatullah, 18, a colleague of Mr Ahmad’s, said: "It is difficult for us now to know who the enemy is. They have the same faces as us and now they are wearing our uniforms."

Abdul Jabar, 20, another policeman in Helmand, said: "It’s difficult for us to say how many times a week they are doing this. Whenever they want to they can come into the city."

In one attack two weeks ago, a teacher and a security official were gunned down as they returned from a wedding in Lashkar Gah. There is some confusion over whether the teacher, Nomyalle, who was between 45 and 50 years old, and Sulaman, who worked for the secretive National Directorate of Security, were shot as they stopped to change a flat tyre or if they were stopped at an illegal check-point.

According to the Safal Maloq Noori, 50, the Director of Education in Helmand, the Taleban are stepping up attacks against anyone who works for the government and using a variety of tactics.

He told The Times: "It was the local Taleban who carried out this attack. It is natural that they would dress up in police uniforms. The enemy are using all kinds of different tactics."

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