At least 115 insurgents have been killed in ongoing operations in a north-eastern Afghan province known for being a hotbed of foreign militant fighters, a spokesman said.

The Pakistani Taliban say they are holding around 30 Pakistani boys who were abducted in Afghanistan three days ago.

A military helicopter has crashed in eastern Afghanistan, killing 31 US special operation troops and seven Afghan commandos, the country’s president said today.

A key al-Qaida commander has been killed in a Nato air strike in Afghanistan, an alliance spokesman said today.

Insurgent suicide bombers and gunmen stormed an Afghan police compound today, setting off explosions and firing assault rifles in a co-ordinated attack that killed six members of the Afghan security forces.

British aid worker Linda Norgrove may have been killed by a grenade thrown by US troops trying to rescue her from Taliban kidnappers in Afghanistan, British Prime Minister David Cameron said today.

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.

Two Nato service members were killed in a bomb blast in southern Afghanistan today, the military alliance said.

Afghan and international troops captured a Taliban district chief in a four-hour gun battle in the southern province of Helmand, Nato said today.

The chief officer of Afghanistan’s elections commission said today a parliamentary vote will be held in May despite widespread international concern the country’s electoral system needs serious reform.

A suicide bomber killed seven people – including five children – while trying to attack a security post near an elementary school in eastern Afghanistan.

A series of operations by US forces in eastern Afghanistan targeted an al-Qaida leader and a bomb-making cell, killing 19 militants, the coalition said today.

THE UN said guns fell silent across Afghanistan yesterday for an international peace day that saw pledges by the US, NATO, the Afghan government and the Taliban to halt attacks.

Ten French soldiers have been killed fighting Taliban forces outside Kabul.

A suicide bomber blew himself up next to a German military patrol outside the gates of the Afghan capital’s airport today, killing two Afghan soldiers and wounding 10 other people, officials said.

Thousands of angry tribesmen and Islamists protested today across Pakistan against an airstrike that killed 80 people at a religious school near the Afghan border this week, as state TV aired video footage purportedly showing militants in training there before the attack.

A roadside bomb killed two Nato soldiers and wounded two others on patrol in eastern Afghanistan today, the alliance said.

Gunmen ambushed a car carrying Afghan civilians working on a remote US military base in eastern Afghanistan and killed eight of them execution-style, police said today.

Two US and one Afghan soldier were killed in fighting in eastern Afghanistan, US military officials said today.

A suicide bomber on a bicycle attacked Canadian troops in southern Afghanistan today, an Afghan official said.

British and Afghan forces attacked Taliban strongholds today after repelling a brazen insurgent attack on a police headquarters a day earlier in a southern Afghan town, killing at least 19 militants, the governor’s spokesman said.

Militants ambushed and shot dead five Afghan labourers and wounded another as they brought construction wood to a US military base in eastern Afghanistan, police said today.

Suspected Taliban militants killed one US soldier and wounded two in southern Afghanistan, an official said today.

The largest military operation in the past four years against Taliban and al-Qaida militants has been completed in Afghanistan’s eastern mountains, US and Afghan officials said today.

An al-Qaida explosives and chemical weapons expert and a relative of the terror network’s number-two leader were among three top operatives believed killed in a US missile strike in Pakistan last week, Pakistani security officials said today.

A slick two-hour al-Qaida propaganda “documentary” shows a multiethnic group of insurgents in Afghanistan – including Europeans, Arabs and other nationalities – preparing to attack US troops and showing off what they said was a captured US military laptop.

Some 2,000 Afghan security forces rushed to an eastern province today after dozens of suspected Taliban rebels wearing army uniforms killed eight police and soldiers in an attack on a region that has been largely peaceful in recent months, officials said.

A roadside bomb wounded six American troops in the same mountainous area where a commando team was ambushed and a special forces helicopter shot down last month, the US military said today.

The body of a missing US commando has been located in eastern Afghanistan, the military said today, bringing an end to the search for the last member of an ill-fated, four-man special forces unit that disappeared last month.

Rebels attacked a US military medical team as it was helping villagers in the same region of eastern Afghanistan where a US airstrike that killed up to 17 civilians sparked sharp criticism from the government.

THE US military admitted killing civilians in an air strike in eastern Afghanistan last week and a provincial governor said 17 villagers including women and children had died.

A second member of a US special operations team missing since last week has been located in a house in remote eastern Afghanistan and is wounded, the provincial governor said today, a day after another US soldier was rescued in the same area.

An American airstrike in Afghanistan last week killed 17 villagers, including women and children, a provincial governor claimed today.

THE US military said yesterday that hostile fire likely brought down a Chinook helicopter that crashed in eastern Afghanistan, and officials said the status of the 17 American soldiers aboard was unknown.

A US Chinook helicopter that crashed in eastern Afghanistan was likely shot down by hostile fire, and the fate of 17 American servicemembers is unclear, the US military said today. The Taliban claimed to have attacked the aircraft.

A US CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed today while flying troops into eastern Afghanistan, the US military said this evening.

The shooting of a British development worker in a night-time attack in downtown Kabul has ended a month long lull in violent incidents in the Afghan capital.

A bomb attack in an eastern Afghan province killed at least three children and a policeman on the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the government said today.

Suspected Taliban rebels executed two pro-election tribal elders and laid a deadly ambush for an Afghan military commander, officials said today.

US warplanes bombarded a remote village in eastern Afghanistan killing several people after a government office was attacked.

A coalition convoy was ambushed in south-eastern Afghanistan, injuring two coalition troops and an Afghan soldier, the US military said today.

A coalition convoy was ambushed in south-eastern Afghanistan, injuring two coalition troops and an Afghan soldier, the US military said today.

The US military was today investigating how four Afghan children were killed on a firing range where American special forces were training.