Five Americans were charged in Pakistan today with planning terrorist attacks.

SUSPECTED Taliban militants armed with bombs, rifles and rocket-propelled grenades launched near-simultaneous assaults yesterday on Afghan and US facilities in two eastern cities, killing six Afghan police and intelligence officers.

Twenty-four Taliban militants died in clashes with Afghan and foreign troops in southern Afghanistan it was revealed today. The insurgents were believed to be responsible for an attack on a road-building project days earlier.

A suicide bomber detonated himself in a crowded market in eastern Afghanistan today, killing at least six people and wounding 40, a police official said.