Afghan fighting kills 21 with warnings of further bloodshed

Fighting erupted across Afghanistan ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today, with 10 suspected rebels, six police and five medical workers killed and rockets hitting the capital Kabul, officials said.

President Hamid Karzai warned that the militants were receiving support from drug traffickers and that his nation could fall back into the hands of terrorists if its booming heroin trade, which supplies nearly 90% of the world’s supply, isn’t stamped out.