Afghan president Hamid Karzai has accused the Taliban of beheading 17 villagers, including two women, in volatile Helmand province, in a gruesome attack recalling the dark days of the hardline group’s rule before their 2001 ouster.

Insurgents launched pre-dawn attacks today on a major Nato base in eastern Afghanistan and a nearby camp where seven CIA employees were killed last year in a suicide bombing.

An Afghan warlord wanted by the United States declared support for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in a videotape broadcast today by Al-Jazeera television.

Hats and shoes littered a blood-stained field in a desolate Afghan village in the aftermath of an attack by a US warplane targeting a terror suspect that mistakenly killed nine children.

Two people have died after the US bombed a network of caves and tunnels in east Afghanistan, known to be a hiding place for Osama bin Laden.