A packed bus hit a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan today, killing 25 people aboard, as Nato announced another US death in a rapidly rising monthly death toll.

A remote-controlled bomb killed six Afghan civilians today as they travelled in the centre of the country, an official said.

The commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan took his apology for an airstrike that killed civilians directly to the Afghan people, with a video in which he pledged to work to regain their trust.

BOMB blasts killed four US marines in southern Afghanistan, where thousands of American troops have deployed in recent weeks as part of an offensive in the country’s dangerous drug-producing region, an official said yesterday.

The US military has said 27 insurgents have been killed in two separate clashes in southern Afghanistan.

A clash between Nato troops and Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan left a child and adult civilian dead and five others wounded, the alliance said in a statement today.

TALIBAN militants attacked a police checkpoint in the south and killed 16 officers, officials said yesterday.

A group of 75 Taliban militants tried to overrun a US-led coalition base in southern Afghanistan today, a rare frontal attack that left more than 20 militants dead, the coalition said in a statement.

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.

A suicide car bomber attacked a convoy of US contract workers and military personnel in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul today, killing at least four civilians, officials said. A soldier opened fire on the crowd after the attack, killing one civilian.

A roadside bomb exploded next to a police patrol in southern Afghanistan today, killing five policemen, an official said.

Nato has launched an investigation into allegations that British forces opened fire on civilians, killing one and wounding six, after a suicide attack earlier this month.

One Nato soldier and about 57 insurgents were killed in four separate attacks in southern Afghanistan, officials said today.

A roadside blast ripped through a vehicle in southern Afghanistan today, killing 14 villagers and wounding three as they travelled to a provincial capital for holiday celebrations, an official said.

A coalition forces airstrike killed a local Taliban commander and 15 other militants in fighting in southern Afghanistan, the US military said today.

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

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.

More than 80 Taliban militants have been killed in a series of attacks this week by Afghan and coalition forces, the military said.

Afghan and coalition forces killed about 82 militants in multiple assaults across southern Afghanistan, the military said Saturday.

Coalition forces killed 45 insurgents at two camps in southern Afghanistan as they pressed forward with a major anti-Taliban offensive, military officials said today.

Fighting in rugged southern Afghan mountains killed at least 24 militants and five Afghan forces yesterday, while the US military acknowledged that the Taliban have grown in “strength and influence” in recent weeks.

Sixty Taliban militants and four Afghan soldiers were killed in fighting in southern Afghanistan that also involved coalition airstrikes, an Afghan army general said today.

TALIBAN fighters simultaneously attacked two police checkpoints on a southern Afghan highway, and up to 14 militants were killed or wounded in the ensuing gun battle, an official said yesterday.

A roadside bombing today in eastern Afghanistan killed four American troops, the US military said.

About 50 suspected Taliban militants were killed in fighting with US and Afghan forces in southern Afghanistan, a provincial governor 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.

Fighting in central Afghanistan has left 25 people dead, including nine tribal elders who Taliban rebels kidnapped and executed, a senior Afghan official said today.

THE bodies of 13 American troops have been recovered from the crash of a US helicopter in eastern Afghanistan, but seven more soldiers are unaccounted for and some may have been captured.

US MARINES tracked down a band of insurgents in eastern Afghanistan and sparked a battle that left about 23 rebels and two American troops dead, the US military said yesterday, in the latest sign of a revived Taliban-led insurgency.

US forces fought militants on the ground and bombed them from the air in a clash which left 25 rebels dead early today before Afghanistan’s landmark elections, officials said.

Afghan security forces captured a brother-in-law of Mullah Omar on today as he drove near the fugitive Taliban leader’s home town.

An American soldier was killed and two others injured when a bomb exploded near their patrol vehicle in southern Afghanistan today.

A US helicopter bombed a village home in southern Afghanistan killing 11 people, four of them children, Afghan officials said today.

Hats and shoes littered a blood-stained field in a desolate Afghan village in the aftermath of an attack by a US warplane targeting a terror suspect that mistakenly killed nine children.

US and Afghan soldiers killed about a dozen insurgents today and recaptured a key mountain pass in the south-east of the country, a local official said.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai has dismissed allegations that the United States tried to cover up a deadly airstrike and said a continued American presence was crucial to Afghanistan’s future.

FOUR Afghan soldiers were killed and six wounded after their vehicle was hit by a rocket fired by unidentified assailants in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, an Afghan news agency has reported.

The US air assault on an Afghan village that residents say killed 44 civilians was part of a larger operation targeting Taliban fighters, Pentagon officials said.

US military officials, the Afghan government and the US Embassy in Kabul were today on their way to the village where about 40 people celebrating a wedding, mainly women and children, were killed and 70 injured after being bombed by American forces.

US helicopter gunships and jets attacked a house while a wedding was under way, killing and injuring scores, witnesses and hospital officials said.

The Taliban has reportedly hanged three followers of a tribal leader who supports the former Afghan king.