A roadside bomb exploded next to an Afghan army vehicle, killing all six soldiers on board, while a separate bomb and gunfire attack left two Nato soldiers wounded, officials said today.

Two roadside bombs wounded four Canadian soldiers and killed another today - Nato’s fourth fatality since taking command in southern Afghanistan this week - a Canadian military spokesman said.

US-led coalition troops kiled seven suspected Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan as Australia announced today that six of its special forces soldiers were wounded in the same area earlier this month.

Afghan gunmen today killed an Afghan worker and wounded three others building a road to a US-led coalition base in the south of the country.

Multiple attacks in southern Afghanistan killed six militants and left seven coalition troops and an Afghan soldier wounded, the military said today.

Coalition forces attacked a Taliban safe house and killed 14 militants today in eastern Afghanistan, the military said.

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

NATO will double the number of troops in southern Afghanistan when it takes over security from US forces there next month in an attempt to quash the worst rebel violence since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the force’s commander said today.

Fierce fighting between Taliban rebels and Afghan security forces left 18 insurgents and three others dead, a day after the US military pounded suspected rebels in airstrikes that killed as many as 20, officials said today.

Taliban insurgents have freed a Turkish engineer they kidnapped a month ago as he worked on a road project in southern Afghanistan, officials said today.