Islamist guerrillas are turning the vast Sahara into a new theatre of war against the West, writes Alex Diaz

Protests have started breaking out in parts of the Muslim world against an anti-Islam film which prompted violent protests at US embassies in the Middle East earlier this week.

Hundreds of protesters carrying the bodies of two people killed in a Nato-Afghan raid have blocked a key road in eastern Afghanistan.

A brazen, 18-hour Taliban attack on the Afghan capital ended today when insurgents in two buildings were overcome by heavy gunfire from Afghan-led forces and pre-dawn air assaults from US-led coalition helicopters.

Suspected insurgents opened fire yesterday on senior Afghan investigators of the massacre of 16 civilians by a lone US soldier, killing a member of their security detail, hours after the Taliban threatened to behead American troops to avenge Sunday’s killings.

Seven people were killed in clashes between Afghan security forces and protesters demonstrating against the burning of Muslim holy books at a Nato military base.

Seven people were killed today in clashes between Afghan security forces and protesters demonstrating against the burning of Muslim holy books at a Nato military base.

At least three people were killed in Afghanistan today when police opened fire to disperse thousands of anti-American demonstrators.

Anti-American demonstrations are under way on the outskirts of the Afghan capital and in another city over an incident that the US says was inadvertent burning of Muslim holy books at a military base.

Nato and Afghan forces killed a former Guantanamo detainee who had become a key al-Qaida affiliate after returning to Afghanistan, officials said today.

Afghanistan’s president has ordered increased security for workers building roads, dams, electricity lines and telecommunications systems in an attempt to revive key projects stalled by insurgent attacks that have killed or kidnapped dozens of labourers.

A SUICIDE car bomber attacked a health clinic in eastern Afghanistan yesterday as women and children lined up for maternity care and vaccinations, killing at least 35 people in one of the deadliest attacks against civilians this year.

A suicide bomber has killed five soldiers from the Nato-led international coalition outside a military base in eastern Afghanistan, officials said.

Four Afghan soldiers have been killed after a man in a security forces uniform blew himself up at the entrance to a military base in eastern Afghanistan.

A series of bomb blasts and militant attacks killed 11 people across Afghanistan, including a British soldier from the North, four other Nato service members and three Afghan police.

A series of bomb blasts and militant attacks killed 11 people across Afghanistan, including five Nato service members and three Afghan police.

A group of would-be suicide bombers tried to storm a major Nato base in eastern Afghanistan early today but were repelled before they could enter, officials said.

Every effort was made to safely rescue a kidnapped British aid worker who was killed in Afghanistan during an attempt to free her, military commanders and the UK government said today.

A British aid worker being held hostage in Afghanistan was killed by captors during an attempt to rescue her, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said today.

Despite Taliban rocket strikes and bombings, Afghans voted for a new parliament, the first election since a fraud-marred presidential ballot last year cast doubt on the legitimacy of the embattled government.

Taliban militants determined to scuttle Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections showered rockets on cities today as men and women voted in a key test of the government’s ability to fight insurgents and entrenched corruption.

At least two people have been killed in the first hours of polling in Afghanistan’s parliamentary election, officials said.

Six children were killed by a suicide car bomber who blew himself up next to a police truck in southern Afghanistan today.

There is little prospect of Pakistan returning home any time soon to a country which has suffered more than 7,000 terrorist incidents since 2006.

Militants set off a car bomb and stormed the entrance to a major Nato air base in eastern Afghanistan today, an attack which left eight insurgents dead.

Eight militants were killed today in a gun battle after a suicide car bombing at the entrance to an Afghan airport, authorities said.

A string of militant attacks in Afghanistan have killed 12 police officers while six civilians died in bombings, authorities said today.

UZBEKISTAN yesterday ordered its frontier closed to a mass exodus of refugees fleeing clashes between rival groups in Kyrgyzstan where government forces were accused of helping the slaughter of ethnic Uzbeks.

A suicide bomber killed 10 civilians today and wounded seven others in an attack on an Afghan army patrol at a bridge in the southern province of Helmand.

A suicide bomber today killed a key Afghan tribal leader who played a major role in the failed attempt to capture Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora in 2001.

A child was killed and at least a dozen other people were injured in a blast at a wedding celebration in Afghanistan, police said today.

A SUICIDE car bomber killed at least eight people in the Afghan capital yesterday and a Taliban rocket hit the presidential palace grounds as violence surged across the country ahead of tomorrow’s cliffhanger election.

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.

A suicide car bomber in eastern Afghanistan killed 20 civilians and a US soldier today, a US military spokesman said.

Nato said two of its soldiers were killed in a suicide car bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan, where the majority of Nato troops are American.

Afghan and Nato officials say a bomb attack against a convoy of international troops has wounded four soldiers and four Afghans.

Afghanistan executed 15 prisoners – one convicted of killing foreign journalists – an official said today, ending three years without the death penalty.

Afghanistan can no longer accept or understand civilian deaths, President Hamid Karzai said today, after officials reported that 51 villagers died during a US-led operation against Taliban militants in western Afghanistan.

US forces opened fire on civilians in eastern Afghanistan today as they fled a militant ambush involving a suicide car bomb and gunmen, Afghan witnesses said.

Coalition forces captured two suspected al-Qaida members during an early morning raid in eastern Afghanistan today, a military statement said.

France is willing to send its troops to the violence-plagued southern and eastern Afghanistan, if reinforcements are requested in those regions, the French defence minister said today.

France is to withdraw 200 members of its special forces in eastern Afghanistan within weeks, Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said today.

Nato troops assumed command today of military operations in volatile southern Afghanistan from the US-led coalition in the latest bid to crush resurgent Taliban forces behind a deadly spike in bloodshed.