Two Nato service members and five Afghan soldiers have been killed by roadside bombs in separate incidents in the country’s south and east, the alliance and Afghan authorities said today.

Afghan and international forces have killed several militants in eastern and southern Afghanistan, the US-led coalition said today.

Two soldiers from the Nato-led security force were killed in combat today and a third was missing, a day after the military alliance took command of insurgency-wracked southern Afghanistan.

Al-Qaida has sent several fighters from Iraq to join insurgents in Afghanistan, a provincial governor said after interrogating an Iraqi suspect who was caught sneaking across the country’s western border.

A suicide bomber disguised as a woman blew himself up at an army checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan, killing five other people and wounding four, police said today.