At least 15 civilians were killed when a suicide bomber riding a rickshaw blew himself up outside a checkpoint near a market in northern Afghanistan, officials said today.

Four Afghan policemen were killed when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in the country’s north-west, the Interior Ministry said today.

SUSPECTED Taliban militants hanged an old woman and her son from a tree in southern Afghanistan, after accusing them of spying for the Government.

FORCES of a northern warlord overran the capital of a remote Afghan province yesterday, the interior minister said, in a burst of factional violence undermining the authority of US-backed President Hamid Karzai.

Forces of a northern strongman overran the capital of a remote Afghan province today in a burst of factional violence undermining the authority of US-backed President Hamid Karzai.