THE number of Afghan police killed during 2010 fell about 7% to 1,292, the government said yesterday, despite violence spreading across the country as the war entered its 10th year.

Taliban militants struck the heart of the Afghan government in Kabul today, prompting fierce gun battles after a suicide bomber blew himself up near the presidential palace.

A suicide bomber in a vehicle targeted a foreign convoy in Kabul today, wounding several people, Afghan officials said.

Two German journalists working for the country’s national broadcaster and travelling on their own through northern Afghanistan were killed by gunmen today, the first foreign journalists murdered in the country since late 2001, officials said.