American troops were accused of firing on a bus killing four civilians in the Afghan region of Kandahar today.

Taliban militants attacked government buildings in the south-eastern Afghan city of Khost today with suicide bombers, AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, officials said.

SUSPECTED Taliban militants armed with bombs, rifles and rocket-propelled grenades launched near-simultaneous assaults yesterday on Afghan and US facilities in two eastern cities, killing six Afghan police and intelligence officers.

MILITANTS brandishing assault rifles ambushed a US relief organisation’s vehicle south of Kabul, killing three Western aid workers and their Afghan driver and leaving their white SUV riddled with hundreds of bullets, officials said.

US military interrogators assaulted Afghan detainees in 2003, using investigation methods they learned during self-defence training, according to Pentagon documents.

A suicide bomber detonated himself in a crowded market in eastern Afghanistan today, killing at least six people and wounding 40, a police official said.

A roadside bomb along a busy Kabul road killed two Afghans today as fighting in the eastern provinces left a US-led coalition soldier and seven suspected Taliban dead, officials said.

Afghan forces have killed 19 Taliban rebels as they traded rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire with insurgents in volatile southern Afghanistan.

Four people were shot to death today in clashes with police as protests over allegations that interrogators in Guantanamo Bay desecrated Islam’s holy book spread to more Afghan cities, officials and witnesses said.

Four people were shot dead in clashes with police as anti-US protests spread to more Afghan cities today, officials and witnesses said.

Investigators have clear evidence of ballot-stuffing in Afghanistan’s landmark presidential election but not on a scale that would overturn interim leader Hamid Karzai’s victory, according to a senior official.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai escaped a rocket attack on the US helicopter carrying him to a provincial capital today.

The US military has opened an investigation into allegations that an Afghan police officer was stripped naked, beaten and photographed at a US base in Afghanistan, the US Embassy in Kabul said today.

The US military said today it killed four militants who attacked a convoy in eastern Afghanistan, but an Afghan official said the victims were police officers gunned down after a mix-up.

Six children have been killed during an assault by US forces on a compound in eastern Afghanistan, the second time in a week that civilians have died in action against Taliban and al-Qaida suspects.

A French woman working for the United Nations was shot and killed in central Afghanistan today by a man on a motorcycle who opened fire on her UN vehicle, an official said.

THE United States plans to increase spending significantly in Afghanistan in a show of support for President Hamid Karzai, a US administration official said yesterday.

Concerns persist about security at Afghanistan’s borders and terrorists’ infiltration of the country, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today.

Insurgents fired a volley of rockets at a US base in south-east Afghanistan, prompting coalition forces to return fire with artillery, a US military spokesman said today.

US troops shot dead four Afghan soldiers and wounded four others outside the US Embassy in Kabul yesterday when they mistakenly thought they were about to come under attack, Afghan officials said.

American special forces killed five attackers after they were ambushed in eastern Afghanistan, a US military spokesman said today.

Five people have been killed and six injured in eastern Afghanistan when a rocket-propelled grenade was fired into the air during a wedding party.

A sniper shot and wounded a US special forces soldier as he rode in a convoy in eastern Afghanistan, an army spokesman said today.

A US military transport plane carrying 10 soldiers crashed on take-off in Afghanistan, killing three soldiers, military officials said today. The seven others on board escaped with minor injuries.

At least seven people are dead and 50 are wounded after factional fighting in the Afghan city of Gardez.

Three mortar rounds were fired at US soldiers in eastern Afghanistan yesterday, a military spokesman revealed today.

Advancing coalition forces today claimed control of the Shah-e-Kot valley in eastern Afghanistan, sweeping all but a few small groups of al-Qaida and Taliban fighters as allied troops worked their way through the warren of mountain caves.

Hundreds of weary US soldiers descended from the Afghan mountains after a gruelling eight-day battle against enemy holdouts. US bombers pounded the caves where the remaining fighters were hiding.

US fighter jets pounded the mountains of eastern Afghanistan today, unleashing a massive barrage intended to wipe out any remnants of al-Qaida fugitives hiding in the region’s caves.

Afghan troops and tanks rushed to the mountain battle zone today to bolster US led coalition forces against determined pockets of al-Qaida militants fulfilling their vow to fight to the death.

British special forces and American troops are reported to be leading the hunt for Taliban leader Mohammed Omar 300 miles.

Reinforcement helicopters have been called into the fight in Afghanistan after the most feared aerial weapons were knocked out of action by Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

Reinforcement helicopters have been called into the fight in Afghanistan after the most feared aerial weapons were knocked out of action by Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

US President George W Bush has said the deaths of at least eight US soldiers in Afghanistan in recent days has hardened his resolve to destroy the al-Qaida network.

Another US soldier is feared dead after a second helicopter was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan.

US bombers blasted the cavernous mountains of eastern Afghanistan for a third day today, pressing a new offensive against al-Qaida and Taliban fighters believed to be regrouping in the area.

There are reports American troops have been killed and wounded in an assault on Taliban and al-Qaida fighters regrouping in eastern Afghanistan.

An Afghan warlord who led the worst factional warfare since the fall of the Taliban vowed today to fight on rather than step down as governor of a province where tribal leaders have refused to accept his rule.

Calm has returned to the town of Gardez in southern Afghanistan today following two days of fighting between the town’s governing council and a warlord loyal to the UN-installed interim administration.

Heavy fighting has erupted in south-east Afghanistan between a local tribal leader and a warlord loyal to Hamid Karzai’s interim administration.

At least 92 people have been killed by US bombing around the village of Niazi Qala in Paktia province, according to reports.