Rebels attacked a US military medical team as it was helping villagers in the same region of eastern Afghanistan where a US airstrike that killed up to 17 civilians sparked sharp criticism from the government.

A second member of a US special operations team missing since last week has been located in a house in remote eastern Afghanistan and is wounded, the provincial governor said today, a day after another US soldier was rescued in the same area.

An American airstrike in Afghanistan last week killed 17 villagers, including women and children, a provincial governor claimed today.

A US Chinook helicopter that crashed in eastern Afghanistan may have been shot down by hostile fire, and the fate of 17 American service members aboard was unclear, the US military said today. The Taliban claimed it attacked the aircraft.

A US Chinook helicopter that crashed in eastern Afghanistan was likely shot down by hostile fire, and the fate of 17 American servicemembers is unclear, the US military said today. The Taliban claimed to have attacked the aircraft.

At least 16 people, many of them children, were killed in explosions at the office of a US security contractor in Afghanistan’s capital and a school in the south east as the country moves towards its first post-Taliban election.

A powerful explosion wrecked an office of an American security house in Kabul today, killing up to six people, officials said.

An explosion ripped through a school in south-eastern Afghanistan, killing nine children and one adult, the United States military said today.