A suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle outside an Afghan hotel frequented by foreigners today, killing at least four guards.

MILITANT fighters streaming from an Afghan village and a mosque attacked a pair of remote outposts near the Pakistani border, killing eight US soldiers and as many as seven Afghan forces in one of the fiercest battles of the eight-year war.

Saudi Arabia has helped evacuate 24 members of the extended family of Osama bin Laden from the US.