Pakistan has temporarily suspended oil tankers and trucks carrying sealed containers from using the Khyber Pass, a key passage to Afghanistan, an official said today, a move which will probably have an impact on supplies heading to Nato troops.

A suicide car bomber in eastern Afghanistan killed 20 civilians and a US soldier today, a US military spokesman said.

A series of operations by US forces in eastern Afghanistan targeted an al-Qaida leader and a bomb-making cell, killing 19 militants, the coalition said today.