Afghanistan’s government claimed that al-Qaida and Taliban rebels launched a violent campaign last week to subvert landmark legislative elections with a deadly suicide bombing and a failed attempt to down a US military aircraft with a shoulder-launched missile.

A DEADLY suicide bombing at a mosque and an attempt to shoot down a US military aircraft with a shoulder-launched missile may signal the start of a campaign of violence by al-Qaida and Taliban rebels to destabilise Afghanistan’s legislative elections, President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman said yesterday.

A deadly suicide bombing at a mosque and an attempt to shoot down a US military aircraft with a shoulder-launched missile may signal the start of a campaign of violence by al-Qaida and Taliban rebels to destabilise Afghanistan’s legislative elections, President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman said today.

A MAN claiming to have kidnapped an Italian aid worker in Afghanistan told Reuters yesterday he had killed her, but a government spokesperson said she was still alive.

An anti-Taliban warlord defended himself against government accusations and seething villagers today, a day after his cache of ammunition and explosives blew away a chunk of their hamlet in a remote Afghan valley.

Negotiations on the fate of three UN workers, including an Irish woman, kidnapped in Afghanistan have snagged over ransom demands, officials said today.

Two of three UN workers kidnapped in Afghanistan have been allowed to phone home – one to say she expected to be freed soon – but there was no word of the Irishwoman abducted with them.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai escaped a rocket attack on the US helicopter carrying him to a provincial capital today.

Thousands of Pakistani army reinforcements were joining a major offensive today in tribal border villages where al-Qaida’s Number 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, is believed surrounded.

US and Afghan troops have captured “semi-senior” terrorist leaders along the border with Pakistan, an Afghan government spokesman said in Kabul today.

An American air strike in an Afghan village earlier this month killed 10 civilians, President Hamid Karzai said today