Afghanistan

KABUL, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) — Seven Afghan employees of a local road construction company were killed when their vehicle hit mines Saturday morning in eastern Afghan province of Kunar, a police officer said.

The visit to Afghanistan by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer last week was meant to shore up confidence in the mission to stabilise the country and secure it once and for all from control of extremism in the form of the Taleban. Though Mr Jaap …

KABUL, Afghanistan: Clashes in southern Afghanistan in recent days have killed 32 militants, including two Taliban commanders, officials said. Separately, a remote-controlled roadside bomb hit a police convoy Thursday in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, killing a policeman and wounding four others, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein …

Australian troops will remain in Afghanistan for the long haul, but Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon says he understands why Canada has set a withdrawal date for its forces. Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed overnight that Canada would withdraw its 2,500 troops from the volatile south of Afghanistan in 2011. The …

BRDO, Slovenia – The European Union expects to have fully deployed a police training mission to Afghanistan by April and could extend it later, the bloc’s special representative to the country said on Thursday.

OTTAWA – Canada’s minority Conservative government, bowing to a key opposition demand, said on Thursday its military mission in southern Afghanistan would end in 2011 and would not be extended.

KABUL – The Afghan army has killed more than 30 Taliban fighters in an operation backed by air support in the violent south of the country, the defense ministry said on Thursday.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An explosion killed one British soldier and wounded another in southern Afghanistan Wednesday, and U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops detained 22 suspected insurgents in two separate operations, officials said. Britain’s Ministry of Defense in London said the blast hit as a British patrol was trying to …

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — In the second serious attack in southern Afghanistan in two days, a suicide bomber set off an explosion on Monday as he drove his car near a convoy of Canadian troops on a crowded border town street, killing 36 civilians and wounding 38. The governor of Kandahar …

The attack, a day after more than 100 people were killed in the deadliest suspected suicide raid since the Taliban were overthrown in 2001, comes as some Western politicians call for a stronger resolve to stop Afghanistan sliding back into anarchy.