Afghan security forces shot and killed two British troops and one American in two separate incidents, the latest in a rising number of attacks in which Afghan forces have turned their weapons on their foreign partners.

Afghanistan’s president has rejected a US apology for the mistaken killing of nine Afghan boys in a Nato air attack, saying civilian casualties were no longer acceptable.

A new video released by the Taliban today showed the only known US serviceman held captive in Afghanistan still alive after nearly 18 months.

Two suicide bombers wearing police uniforms blew themselves up at an Afghan police headquarters today, killing at least 12 officers in a deadly border region that has long been a refuge for Islamist extremists from around the world.

One of two US sailors missing in Afghanistan since last week has been confirmed dead and his body recovered, a Nato spokesman said today.

The Taliban have offered to exchange the body of a US Navy member they said was killed in an ambush two days ago in exchange for insurgent prisoners, an Afghan official said today.

Two US troops are missing in eastern Afghanistan, a military official said today.

The Taliban released a video today showing a US soldier who was captured more than five months ago in eastern Afghanistan.

The chief challenger to President Hamid Karzai today called for a full investigation into hundreds of reports of fraud in Afghanistan’s presidential contest.

AFGHANISTAN’S vote monitoring body has ordered the invalidation of ballots from last month’s controversial elections, finding “clear and convincing evidence of fraud”.

The UN-backed commission investigating fraud in Afghanistan's election issued its first orders today to exclude some ballots from the final tally.

A UN-BACKED commission yesterday ordered a recount of tainted ballots from the Afghan presidential vote, saying it had “convincing evidence of fraud”, even as President Hamid Karzai for the first time surpassed the threshold needed to avoid a run-off and win re-election.

The UN-backed watchdog investigating Afghanistan’s election said today it found “clear and convincing evidence of fraud” and ordered a recount at some polling stations.

An American soldier has been captured by the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan, the military said today.

A roadside bomb blast killed two Nato soldiers patrolling in eastern Afghanistan and wounded one other, the alliance said today.

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives at the entrance to a US base in eastern Afghanistan today, killing three of the country’s soldiers and one Afghan civilian, a US official said.

Suspected Islamic militants decapitated one Afghan man and shot dead another after accusing them of spying for the US in a tribal region in north-western Pakistan, an intelligence official said today.

US-led and Afghan troops raided three compounds in eastern Afghanistan today, killing four suspected militants and detaining 16 others, while other clashes and airstrikes in the south left 17 more militants dead.

Nato and US-led forces killed 60 insurgents near the border with Pakistan, in what the military described today as the largest group of insurgents crossing the region in six months.

Taliban militants have seized control of a district in Afghanistan’s volatile south after an hours-long clash that killed five people, including the local police chief and the political leader.

The incoming commander of US troops in Afghanistan said today he expects Taliban militants to launch more suicide attacks this year than in 2006, when militants set off a record 139 suicide bombs.

A suicide bomber detonated explosives next to Afghan soldiers in an eastern market today, killing one soldier and wounding three, an official said.

A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-filled car into a two-vehicle convoy carrying foreigners south of the Afghan capital today, a police official said.

Nato today said as many as 150 insurgents were killed in a battle in eastern Afghanistan after two large groups of fighters crossed the border from Pakistan.

A suicide car bomber rammed into an Afghan and Nato convoy today, killing an Afghan soldier and a civilian while a second suicide bomber disguised in a burqa injured two Afghan soldiers in a nearby province, officials said.

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

A TOP NATO general said yesterday that an offensive aimed at driving Taliban militants from their safe havens in southern Afghanistan has been “successfully completed”, even as suicide bombers struck military convoys, wounding six soldiers.

President Hamid Karzai condemned a US airstrike that Afghan officials claimed killed 10 border policemen today.

Police killed three Taliban and captured a former mid-level official from the hardline militia’s ousted government in separate incidents, officials said today.

Afghan authorities are investigating a mass grave believed to contain the bodies of more than 500 soldiers of the Afghan communist regime toppled in 1992, the Interior Ministry said today.

A bomb killed a United States soldier and wounded four others after it exploded near their armoured vehicle in eastern Afghanistan, a US military statement said today.

A suspected Taliban rebel leader was killed in recent heavy fighting in eastern Afghanistan, while elsewhere an American service member died in a training accident, the US military said today.

Warplanes pounded a suspected Taliban compound in the Afghan mountains near where an elite American military team was missing, while a transport plane flew home the bodies of 16 US troops killed when their special forces helicopter was shot down while trying to rescue the missing team, officials said.

One US soldier and seven rebels were killed and three American troops were wounded in fighting today in eastern Afghanistan, the US military said.

A suspected bomb blast killed an election worker and four other civilians in south-eastern Afghanistan today.

PAKISTANI troops backed by helicopters launched an offensive yesterday to capture foreign terrorists in the mountains along the Afghan border where Osama bin Laden is thought to have bolt-holes.

Pakistan’s army launched a major offensive today against suspected terrorists in a mountainous region near the Afghan border believed used by al-Qaida fugitives.

AFGHANISTAN’S constitutional convention began voting yesterday, but up to a quarter of the 502 delegates refused to cast ballots for a draft charter backed by the United States after a long, acrimonious meeting.

US troops and helicopters killed 14 insurgents in clashes in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, the military said today.

AMERICAN troops clashed with suspected Taliban near a remote outpost in fighting that killed one American and wounded two others, the latest violence in Afghanistan's increasingly virulent insurgency, officials said yesterday.

A US soldier has been killed and two others wounded in a clash with suspected Taliban rebels in southeastern Afghanistan, the US military said.

Two American soldiers died today after a battle with suspected Taliban fighters.

A US soldier died from wounds and another was slightly injured by a bomb in separate incidents in the same Afghanistan province, the US military said yesterday.

INSURGENTS attacked a police headquarters in southeastern Afghanistan, sparking a battle yesterday that killed at least 15 fighters and seven Afghan police, a police chief said.