Three gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying police and government employees, killing 12 in north-eastern Afghanistan, police said today.

A 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit a remote and mountainous area of north-east Afghanistan today, shaking buildings in the capital and as far away as Pakistan, Tajikistan and India.

Pakistan has told the US military that an Arab al-Qaida operative who masterminded the London jetliner terror plot is hiding in mountainous terrain in north-eastern Afghanistan, an intelligence official said today.

A roadside bomb hit a convoy of Nato peacekeepers in north-eastern Afghanistan on Friday, damaging one vehicle but hurting no one, an official said.

Police and government officials are today struggling to assess the level of damage from a powerful earthquake that rocked the northern fringe of Afghanistan, but said initial reports indicated it was relatively light.

A convoy carrying Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s vice presidential running-mate came under attack today in north-eastern Afghanistan, the presidential palace said.

Afghan soldiers and police raided a hideout where a large group of suspected Taliban militants were suspected of preparing to disrupt this weekend’s presidential elections, prompting a three-hour firefight that left seven insurgents dead, officials said today.

Twenty people were killed and forty wounded in battles between rival armed factions in north-eastern Afghanistan, state television reported today.

A B-52 bomber and two fighter jets pounded a suspected rebel position after attackers fired two rockets at a US base in north-eastern Afghanistan.