MAJOR fraud complaints in the Afghan presidential election surged yesterday to nearly 700, raising concern that the volume of cases that must be investigated will delay announcement of a winner and formation of a new government.

An Afghan vote monitoring group said Taliban militants in Afghanistan’s south cut off the fingers of two voters, carrying out a gruesome pre-election threat.

AFGHANISTAN’S leading human rights organisation said yesterday it was investigating the possibility that white phosphorus was used in a US-Taliban battle that killed scores of Afghans.

An Afghan human rights group said today that at least 88 people, including 20 women, were killed in a joint Afghan-US coalition military operation in western Afghanistan.

After 25 years of fighting that left more than a million dead, Afghanistan’s government is considering setting up a special war crimes court and a truth-seeking commission to document atrocities, an official said.