Afghan police say Taliban suicide bombers have attacked a lakeside hotel north of Kabul, and that militants armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades have taken hostages and are continuing to fight Afghan security forces there.

Australia’s prime minister said her country will begin pulling its troops out of Afghanistan earlier than planned.

Five security guards escorting a Nato coalition supply convoy and more than a dozen insurgents have been killed in a three-hour fight in western Afghanistan, Afghan officials say.

US President Barack Obama has apologised over the burning of Korans at a US airbase in Afghanistan, where three days of protests have killed 14 people.

An Afghan soldier shot and killed a Nato service member in southern Afghanistan, officials said today.

A man in an Afghan uniform opened fire on a group of Americans at a base in the south of the country, killing a US soldier and wounding another.

Two members of the French Foreign Legion have been shot dead by a soldier in the Afghan National Army.

A BOMB exploded near a police station outside a crucial city in Afghanistan’s south yesterday where Afghan forces are readying to assume security responsibility within hours, another worrying sign as insurgents seek to disrupt a gradual transition process.

Taliban gunmen have stormed one of Afghanistan’s premier hotels, sparking a five-hour battle that left 19 people dead, including all eight attackers.

An Afghan soldier shot dead his Australian mentor at a guard tower in Afghanistan, an official said today.

An Afghan soldier “executed” a prisoner on a British base in Helmand province, Ministry of Defence documents disclose.

Insurgents attacked a Nato and Afghan army outpost in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border, Nato officials said today, killing 29 of the militants in the resulting skirmish.

A Nato helicopter crashed today in southern Afghanistan, killing nine international troops in a region where forces are ramping up pressure on Taliban insurgents. It was the deadliest chopper crash for the coalition in four years.

Nine service members with the international coalition in Afghanistan died today when their helicopter crashed in the volatile south where troops are ramping up pressure on Taliban insurgents.

The trial of two former US defence contractors charged with the deaths of two Afghan nationals was getting under way today.

Two Spanish police trainers were shot dead by their Afghan driver during a training session in western Afghanistan today.

A rogue Afghan soldier was being hunted today after he killed three British troops and wounded another four.

Suicide bombers attacked a US international development compound today in northern Afghanistan, killing at least four people and wounding several others.

A senior Taliban commander disguised as a woman was killed by Afghan and international forces today after he opened fire with a pistol and tried to throw a grenade south of the capital Kabul.

Two US service members and four Afghan policemen were killed today in separate explosions in eastern Afghanistan, an area rife with violence, officials said.

THE Taliban claimed responsibility yesterday for bombings that killed 14 people, including eight Americans and an Afghan in a suicide attack in the volatile east, and five Canadians in the south. CIA employees were believed to be among the victims.

The Taliban today admitted they were behind two separate bombings in Afghanistan that killed 13 Westerners.

Five British soldiers have been killed by a rogue Afghan policeman, British and Afghan officials said today.

The new head of the British Army is warning that Britain’s mission in Afghanistan could last for up to 40 years.

Gordon Brown will come under renewed pressure today over resources for British troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

US SENATOR John McCain said yesterday that the situation in Afghanistan will get more difficult before it gets easier — “just like the surge in Iraq was” — as the US prepares to pour thousands more troops into the country, including on the doorsteps of Kabul.

An Afghan human rights group said today that at least 88 people, including 20 women, were killed in a joint Afghan-US coalition military operation in western Afghanistan.

TEN French Nato soldiers were killed in a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan, officials said yesterday, in the deadliest combat incident for foreign troops since the start of the US-led war in 2001.

More helicopters and surveillance aircraft are needed in Afghanistan to support the armed forces there, a senior Nato official said today.

Militants with suicide vests, grenades and AK-47 rifles attacked a luxury hotel in Afghanistan today, killing at least six people in the most brazen attack yet on Western civilians in Kabul, witnesses and a Taliban spokesman said.

A six-hour battle in southern Afghanistan left over 50 militants killed or wounded, officials said today.

The Nato-led coalition in Afghanistan lacks both the troops and the strategy needed to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaida, a leading foreign affairs think tank warned today.

The United Nations Security Council is expected to extend the authorisation of the Nato-led force in Afghanistan ahead of a high-level meeting to focus on promoting national reconciliation in the country.

A suicide bomber blew himself up next to a German military patrol outside the gates of the Afghan capital’s airport today, killing two Afghan soldiers and wounding 10 other people, officials said.

A suicide attacker detonated his vehicle close to the airport in the Afghanistan capital Kabul today, killing at least one solider and wounding two others, officials and witnesses said.

US-led coalition and Afghan troops killed up to 21 suspected Taliban militants in three separate clashes in southern Afghanistan, and a roadside blast killed four Afghan soldiers in the east.

British troops attacked in a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan’s dangerous “Green Zone” yesterday were straight back inside the area today.

An investigation into US-led airstrikes that slammed into Afghan homes where Taliban fighters sought shelter found that 62 insurgents and 45 civilians were killed, two Afghan officials said today.

The top general in Afghanistan said today that Nato’s latest offensive is the first of a “rolling series” of operations against Taliban insurgents, some of whom have been fleeing Western forces in the south.

One Nato soldier and about 57 insurgents were killed in four separate attacks in southern Afghanistan, officials said today.

Nato troops killed 48 suspected militants in three separate battles in southern Afghanistan.

SUSPECTED Taliban militants hanged an old woman and her son from a tree in southern Afghanistan, after accusing them of spying for the Government.

A TOP NATO general said yesterday that an offensive aimed at driving Taliban militants from their safe havens in southern Afghanistan has been “successfully completed”, even as suicide bombers struck military convoys, wounding six soldiers.

Three bombs exploded today in Afghanistan’s capital, in attacks that targeted buses carrying government workers and security forces, killing one bystander and injuring at least 47 other people.