Months of increased tension at the Guantanamo Bay prison boiled over into a clash between guards and detainees as the military closed a communal section of the jail and moved inmates into single cells.

Video evidence recorded by fighter jets and the account of the ground commander suggest no more than 30 civilians were killed in a two-day battle in western Afghanistan this month, the US military said, a stark contrast with Afghan claims that 140 civilians died.

An Afghan politician says 95 children are among a the 140 people Afghan officials say died in a US-Taliban battle earlier this month.

A suicide car bomb attack today on a heavily guarded road between the German Embassy and a US military base in the Afghan capital killed two Afghan civilians and wounded five US troops, officials said.