A double suicide bomb attack killed seven people and wounded 20 in southern Afghanistan today, an official said.

Around 60 Taliban militants were killed today in a battle in an area protected by British troops, according to officials.

THE Afghan police have ordered 7,000 officers onto the streets of Kabul to guard against attacks on senior leaders during Independence Day celebrations today, responding to signs of the Taliban’s growing strength near the capital.

Coalition forces killed several Taliban fighters and detained eight others during raids in southern Afghanistan, where a Canadian soldier also died in a roadside blast.

Two tour buses travelling at high speed collided head-on on a southern Afghan highway this evening, killing about 40 people on board, a highway police commander said.

A suicide bomber targeted a supply convoy for Nato-led troops in southern Afghanistan today, killing a local guard and wounding four others, while a separate clash left four militants dead, officials said.

A clash between police and insurgents left one suspected militant dead in the southeast, while Taliban militants kidnapped a local leader from his home and shot him to death, officials said today.

Militants battled Afghan and US-led coalition troops in three separate clashes in southern Afghanistan, leaving 20 militants and one policemen dead.

US-led coalition air strikes in southern Afghanistan left at least 30 people, including women and children, killed or wounded, an 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.

A roadside bomb killed three Canadian Nato soldiers in southern Afghanistan today.

The Taliban has launched a new operation targeting government and foreign forces in Afghanistan, a spokesman said today, as two policemen died in an ambush in the volatile south.

Two officers were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a police vehicle in southern Afghanistan today, an official said.

A ROADSIDE bomb killed four US soldiers and wounded three yesterday as they were patrolling in southern Afghanistan, the deadliest attack on American forces here in nearly two months, the US military said.

Some 2,000 Afghan security forces rushed to an eastern province today after dozens of suspected Taliban rebels wearing army uniforms killed eight police and soldiers in an attack on a region that has been largely peaceful in recent months, officials said.

Fighting between insurgents and US-led coalition and Afghan forces in the country’s troubled east left 12 rebels dead and one US soldier slightly wounded, the US military said today.

Suspected Taliban militants shot dead seven people working for an international aid group in southern Afghanistan today, an official said.

Fierce battles between US and government forces and Taliban-led militants have left about 64 rebels dead, the US military said today, the bloodiest fighting in Afghanistan in nine months.

A vehicle carrying a group of suspected Taliban fighters attacked a military checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, sparking a firefight that left six dead and at least four wounded, police said.

Taliban militants crept up on an Afghan government office under cover of darkness early today and launched a gunbattle that left four attackers and three Afghan troops dead, police said.

The US military today apologised for the death of a young Afghan civilian.

The bullet-riddled bodies of five government soldiers were found in southern Afghanistan today, a day after they were abducted by suspected Taliban, an Afghan official said.

US forces battled Taliban suspects in a forbidding mountain range in southern Afghanistan, killing two fighters and arresting two others.

AFGHAN and US troops overran three suspected Taliban positions in the mountains of southern Afghanistan yesterday, while American bombing echoed through the rugged region, where hundreds of Taliban holdouts have been offering a week of fierce resistance.

Afghan and US troops overran three suspected Taliban positions in the mountains of southern Afghanistan today, while American bombing echoed through the rugged region, where hundreds of Taliban holdouts have been offering a week of fierce resistance.

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.

US jets bombed an area of southeastern Afghanistan today killing up to 16 Taliban guerrillas.

A senior Taliban defector says supreme leader Mullah Omar has fled Kandahar.