US, Afghan and Pakistani officers opened the first of six joint military intelligence centres along the Afghan-Pakistan border, an effort to cut down on militants’ movement in a region of rising terrorist activity.

At least 21 rebels were killed today in fighting between Afghan forces and Taliban militants in a volatile southern province.

The top general in Afghanistan said today that Nato’s latest offensive is the first of a “rolling series” of operations against Taliban insurgents, some of whom have been fleeing Western forces in the south.

A TOP NATO general said yesterday that an offensive aimed at driving Taliban militants from their safe havens in southern Afghanistan has been “successfully completed”, even as suicide bombers struck military convoys, wounding six soldiers.