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.

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