Five security guards escorting a Nato coalition supply convoy and more than a dozen insurgents have been killed in a three-hour fight in western Afghanistan, Afghan officials say.

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

A Nato service member has died in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said today.

A Taliban leader has been killed in eastern Afghanistan, Nato said today – part of the coalition’s stepped-up campaign to capture and kill mid-level insurgent leaders and disrupt their supply lines.

A blast with smuggled-in explosives at a prison in western Afghanistan killed a guard and allowed 11 inmates to escape early today, officials said. One prisoner was shot and killed while fleeing.

An Afghan man working for the United Nations was shot and killed in his vehicle today near a busy traffic island in Afghanistan’s capital, the world body said.

A new Taliban code of military conduct that tells fighters to limit suicide attacks and avoid killing civilians is a sham that doesn’t reflect the true nature of the insurgents, Nato and Afghan officials said.

Video evidence recorded by fighter jets and the account of the ground commander suggest no more than 30 civilians were killed in a two-day battle in western Afghanistan this month, the US military said, a stark contrast with Afghan claims that 140 civilians died.

An Afghan politician says 95 children are among a the 140 people Afghan officials say died in a US-Taliban battle earlier this month.

Afghanistan’s top human rights group said today that it is investigating whether white phosphorous was used in a US-Taliban battle in which scores of people were killed.

AFGHANISTAN’S leading human rights organisation said yesterday it was investigating the possibility that white phosphorus was used in a US-Taliban battle that killed scores of Afghans.

A joint US-Afghan investigation has found that civilians were killed during a battle in southern Afghanistan, but officials have not been able to determine how many.

Bombing runs called in by US forces killed dozens of civilians taking shelter from fighting between Taliban militants and Afghan and international troops, Afghan officials said.

A provincial police chief says militants have released 148 Afghan labourers who were held hostage for almost a week in western Afghanistan.

An official says a suicide bomber wearing a burqa killed 15 people and wounded 22 others in a crowded market in western Afghanistan.

Fifty-nine schoolchildren were confirmed dead today and 96 others were injured in the suicide attack in northern Afghanistan earlier this week.

Italian commandos, aided by Nato forces and aircraft, rescued two kidnapped Italian intelligence agents in a daring ambush and gunbattle that left at least nine of the captors dead in western Afghanistan today.

The US-led coalition today accused the Taliban of using children as human shields during a battle in southern Afghanistan, while Nato said it was investigating a shipment of weapons intercepted near the border with Iran.

A roadside bomb in western Afghanistan left three civilians dead and 48 wounded, including 10 children.

A roadside bomb in Afghanistan left two civilians dead and 48 wounded, including 10 children, officials said today.

Nato troops killed 48 suspected militants in three separate battles in southern Afghanistan.

MILITANTS have regrouped in Afghanistan’s western provinces and ignited violence that has killed a dozen people in two days, officials warned yesterday.

As Nato troops exert pressure on Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan, militants have regrouped in western provinces and ignited violence that has killed a dozen people in two days, officials said today.

A senior Nato official today likened the tactics of Taliban militants who hide among civilians in Afghanistan to those of Hezbollah in Lebanon, as US and Afghan forces seized bomb-making materials and killed a suspected al-Qaida operative in a raid on a house.

Militants shot dead a local police chief and five other officers in an ambush on a desert road in western Afghanistan today.

Afghan police killed four Taliban militants during heavy fighting in the south of the country today, while suspected Taliban gunmen shot dead a judge in the west, officials said.

Suspected Taliban rebels fired rockets and machine guns at a checkpoint manned by Afghan soldiers in a remote southwestern region of the country, killing eight troops in the nighttime attack, the area’s governor said today.

A LOUD explosion was heard near the US embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul yesterday, while a government worker was killed in an ambush.