The Taliban said it detonated a bomb on a fuel tanker today and then opened fire on other Nato supply trucks, destroying 22 vehicles loaded with fuel and other goods for US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.

A suicide bomber has blown himself up in a wedding hall in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 23 people including a prominent warlord-turned-politician and three Afghan security force officials, in an attack that deals a setback to efforts to unify the nation’s ethnic factions, Afghan officials said.

A group of suicide attackers stormed a government compound in western Afghanistan today, killing at least seven people, officials said.

Fifteen people have been killed after suicide bombers struck two government offices in southern and western Afghanistan as militants step up attacks across the country, authorities said.

At least 10 people were killed and more than 20 others injured in a suicide bomb attack outside a government office in western Afghanistan during rush-hour today, authorities said.

A suicide bomber in a four-wheel-drive vehicle detonated his cache of explosives in western Afghanistan today, killing nine people and wounding 21.

Gunmen have attacked an outpost of a government-sponsored militia force in western Afghanistan, killing 10 people, officials said.

Five security guards escorting a Nato coalition supply convoy and more than a dozen insurgents have been killed in a three-hour fight in western Afghanistan, Afghan officials say.

A man wearing an Afghan army uniform opened fire on coalition troops in western Afghanistan, Nato officials said today.

Eleven people, most of them members of one family, have been killed by a roadside bomb in western Afghanistan, officials said today.

A roadside bomb has killed at least 20 passengers travelling on a minibus in western Afghanistan, police said.

A SUICIDE car bomber attacked a health clinic in eastern Afghanistan yesterday as women and children lined up for maternity care and vaccinations, killing at least 35 people in one of the deadliest attacks against civilians this year.

A suicide attacker blew up an explosives-packed car today at the gates of an Italian military base in western Afghanistan, killing several people, officials said.

The Afghan government says militants are attacking an Italian military base in western Afghanistan. A suicide attacker blew up a bomb-packed car outside the base and a gunbattle is ongoing.

Afghans have rioted for a second day over the burning of a Koran in the US, killing nine people in Kandahar and injuring more than 80 in a wave of violence that underscored rising anti-foreign sentiment after nearly a decade of war.

Anger over the burning of the Muslim holy book at a church in the US has fuelled a second day of deadly violence in Afghanistan, where demonstrators set cars and shops on fire in a riot which left nine protesters dead.

PRESIDENT Barack Obama offered Americans an optimistic assessment of the Afghanistan war yesterday, even as US spy agencies and aid groups express doubts about the progress amid worsening violence.

Fourteen people died today when a roadside bomb destroyed a crowded minibus in western Afghanistan.

A suicide attacker driving an explosives-packed car has blown up the entrance to a United Nations office in western Afghanistan, allowing at least three other militants to storm the building, officials said today.

Nine Afghans guarding a Nato convoy in the south of the country have been killed in the latest terrorist attack on supply routes.

A bomb blast killed three Nato troops in western Afghanistan today, a day after six service members died in a spate of attacks by insurgents in the east and south.

A senior Taliban commander and two other insurgents were killed in a firefight with Nato-Afghan forces in western Afghanistan, the military alliance said today.

Four service members have been killed in an insurgent attack in western Afghanistan, Nato said today.

Two Spanish police trainers were shot dead by their Afghan driver during a training session in western Afghanistan today.

A blast with smuggled-in explosives at a prison in western Afghanistan killed a guard and allowed 11 inmates to escape early today, officials said. One prisoner was shot and killed while fleeing.

Four Nato troops died in separate attacks across Afghanistan today, including a suicide car bomber who targeted a military convoy in the Taliban-dominated south.

Four police officers have been killed by a roadside bomb in western Afghanistan, the latest in a string of deadly attacks.

An Afghan police official said the death toll from a suicide bombing in western Afghanistan was 13.

Military divers have found the body of one of two US soldiers who disappeared last week in western Afghanistan, Nato forces said today.

The US military said four American troops were killed and two others injured in a mid-air collision of two helicopters in southern Afghanistan.

Police said a bomb targeting Afghanistan’s energy minister exploded outside a girl’s high school in the country’s west.

Spain’s defence minister says she will consider sending more troops to Afghanistan amid a surge in insurgent attacks.

Six Afghan presidential candidates warned today that fraud allegations threaten to undermine the recent election and could fuel violence.

A remote-controlled bomb targeting a police convoy killed 12 people today in western Afghanistan, a day after three American soldiers died in a complex militant ambush in the country’s east.

SUSPECTED Taliban militants armed with bombs, rifles and rocket-propelled grenades launched near-simultaneous assaults yesterday on Afghan and US facilities in two eastern cities, killing six Afghan police and intelligence officers.

A helicopter on contract to Nato-led forces crashed today in southern Afghanistan, killing six civilians on board and an Afghan child on the ground.

The violence that has surged for two years in Afghanistan has reached a new high and more difficulty lies ahead, America’s top war zone commander said.

A battle in a militant-controlled region of western Afghanistan killed 30 insurgents and nine Afghan soldiers, while a roadside bomb in the country’s north wounded an Afghan governor, officials said today.

Video evidence recorded by fighter jets and the account of the ground commander suggest no more than 30 civilians were killed in a two-day battle in western Afghanistan this month, the US military said, a stark contrast with Afghan claims that 140 civilians died.

Bombing runs called in by US forces killed dozens of civilians taking shelter from fighting between Taliban militants and Afghan and international troops, Afghan officials said.

THE Afghan president yesterday demanded that President-elect Barack Obama put an end to civilian casualties, as villagers said US warplanes bombed a wedding party, killing 37 people, nearly all of them women and children.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai made an immediate demand of Barack Obama today, saying the president-elect must prevent civilian casualties as Afghan villagers alleged that airstrikes killed or wounded dozens of women and children in a wedding party.

Nine people were killed in US missile strike on a Taliban-linked school in north-west Pakistan today.

A provincial police chief says militants have released 148 Afghan labourers who were held hostage for almost a week in western Afghanistan.