ARMED police escorted trucks carrying ballots to polling stations yesterday in preparation for weekend legislative elections in Afghanistan, as militant attacks kept tension high and a purported Taliban spokesman urged people to boycott the landmark vote.

A SMALL team of American soldiers was missing last night in the same mountains in eastern Afghanistan where a special forces helicopter was shot down earlier this week.

THE bodies of 13 American troops have been recovered from the crash of a US helicopter in eastern Afghanistan, but seven more soldiers are unaccounted for and some may have been captured.