Six US troops and three Afghan soldiers died when insurgents ambushed their foot patrol in eastern Afghanistan, officials said today.

A ROADSIDE blast ripped through a pickup truck in southern Afghanistan yesterday, killing 14 villagers who were travelling to a provincial capital for holiday celebrations, an official said.

Two German journalists working for the country’s national broadcaster and travelling on their own through northern Afghanistan were killed by gunmen today, the first foreign journalists murdered in the country since late 2001, officials said.