A US soldier came out of his base in southern Afghanistan today and started shooting Afghan civilians, the provincial governor said.

A suicide bomber hiding explosives in his turban blew himself up inside a mosque during a memorial service for Afghan president Hamid Karzai's assassinated half brother, officials say.

THE younger half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, one of the most powerful and controversial men in southern Afghanistan, was shot dead at his home yesterday by a senior and highly trusted bodyguard, officials said.

HUNDREDS of insurgents who escaped from a jail in Afghanistan’s volatile south through a tunnel dug by the Taliban must have received inside help from prison guards or officials, the Afghan government said.

A suicide bomb ripped through a wedding party in full swing in the Taliban’s heartland in southern Afghanistan, killing at least 40 people and wounding dozens more, officials said today.