An Afghan police official said the death toll from a suicide bombing in western Afghanistan was 13.

The violence that has surged for two years in Afghanistan has reached a new high and more difficulty lies ahead, America’s top war zone commander said.

A battle in a militant-controlled region of western Afghanistan killed 30 insurgents and nine Afghan soldiers, while a roadside bomb in the country’s north wounded an Afghan governor, officials said today.

A roadside bomb in northern Afghanistan wounded the governor of Kunduz province today, while violence around the country killed 17 people, officials said.

AFGHANISTAN said yesterday it hoped the newly named commander of US and NATO troops would do more to avert civilian deaths, which had soured relations under outgoing commander General David McKiernan.

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.

POLICE in Afghanistan said yesterday that air strikes against insurgents had killed 100 people, most of them civilians.

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

Afghan drugs police have uncovered 236 metric tonnes of hashish hidden in 6ft deep trenches in southern Afghanistan, in what they say appears to be the largest yet drug bust.

Taliban fighters killed 15 Afghan guards working for a US security company who were guarding a convoy of fuel tankers driving through western Afghanistan, an official said today.

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.

A top American commander on Friday accused Iran of supplying powerful roadside bombs to militants in Afghanistan and said the US would “act decisively” if the cross-border flow continues.

A British security guard kidnapped by the Taliban was apparently killed as American soldiers neared the hideaway on a search and rescue mission in Afghanistan, an inquest heard today.

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.

Police killed 11 suspected Taliban in two separate operations in southern Afghanistan overnight as a purported insurgent spokesman claimed today that militants killed a Turkish national kidnapped last month.

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

Canadian and Afghan troops have killed five Taliban militants in fierce clashes around an opium-rich southern village, the military 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.