KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Oct 12, 2008 (AFP) - Between 40 and 60 Taliban were killed in military action, including air strikes, after they attacked security forces in southern Afghanistan, police and the NATO-led force said Sunday.

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, Oct 12, 2008 (AFP) - US pilotless spy planes on Sunday flew over a Pakistani tribal town bordering Afghanistan just hours after a missile strike killed at least four people, residents said.

SHULTAN, Afghanistan, Oct 11, 2008 (AFP) - Things are bad back home, says school director Said Nabi Said, one of thousands of Pakistanis who have fled into Afghanistan to escape an offensive against Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

KABUL, Oct 11, 2008 (AFP) - Afghan security officials said on Saturday they had thwarted a mass break-out by Taliban prisoners who had bribed three Afghan policemen to smuggle bomb-making equipment into a Kabul jail.

WASHINGTON, Oct 11, 2008 (AFP) - Frustrated by a potential failure in Afghanistan, the United States is scrambling to forge a new strategy expanding tribal militias' power, The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Oct 11, 2008 (AFP) - A suicide attack on Saturday against an Afghan army convoy in central Afghanistan left six people wounded, while 12 militants were killed separately, officials said.

The suicide bomber detonated his explosives beside the convoy in the Dihrawud district of Uruzgan province, provincial police chief Juma Gul Himat told AFP.

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, Oct 12, 2008 (AFP) - A missile strike by a suspected US spy drone hit a compound in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan late Saturday, security officials said.

'Two missiles struck a compound just outside Miranshah but we don't have the number of casualties at the moment,' a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, Oct 12, 2008 (AFP) - A missile strike by a suspected US spy drone that hit a compound in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan late Saturday killed four people, security officials said.

KHAR, Pakistan, Oct 10, 2008 (AFP) - Taliban militants in Pakistan beheaded four tribal elders who had attended a pro-government meeting in the insurgency-hit region of Bajaur, officials and residents said Friday.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Oct 10, 2008 (AFP) - An explosion hit a meeting of tribal elders in a restive Pakistani region bordering Afghanistan on Friday and casualties are feared, security officials said.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Oct 10, 2008 (AFP) - A suicide blast at an anti-Taliban tribal meeting in a restive Pakistani region bordering Afghanistan on Friday killed at least 15 people and wounded dozens, security officials said.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Oct 10, 2008 (AFP) - A suicide bomber blew himself up at a meeting of anti-Taliban tribal leaders in a Pakistani region on the Afghan border Friday, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens, officials said.

ON BOARD US MILITARY AIRCRAFT, Oct 10, 2008 (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he had suggested to NATO allies sending temporary troop reinforcements to Afghanistan during the 2009 elections.

BUDAPEST, Oct 10, 2008 (AFP) - NATO forces will from now on directly target Afghanistan's opium trade to stop hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money from reaching Taliban-led insurgents, the alliance announced Friday.

BUDAPEST, Oct 9, 2008 (AFP) - NATO defence ministers will hear a plea Thursday to take new steps to crack down on the opium trade in Afghanistan as the illicit business generates vital funds for the Taliban-led insurgency.

WASHINGTON, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - A US military investigation has concluded that at least 33 civilians, including a dozen children, were killed in an air strike August 22 in western Afghanistan, a summary of the findings released Wednesday said.

OTTAWA, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - NATO-led forces alone cannot bring peace and stability to Afghanistan, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday, a week before Canada votes in a general election.

'I don't believe -- and I've said many times I don't believe -- that we can pacify every corner of Afghanistan as foreign troops,' said Harper in an interview with CBC television.

LONDON, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - British Foreign Secretary David Miliband sought Tuesday to play down suggestions by his country's top military commander in Afghanistan that multinational forces would not achieve a 'decisive' win there.

BRUSSELS, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - NATO's top commander and Afghanistan's defence minister will urge allies Thursday to take new steps to crack down on the opium trade as the trafficking generates vital funds for the Taliban-led insurgency.

KABUL, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Norway added its backing Wednesday to a political solution to Afghanistan's extremist insurgency following reports that the Afghan government has already begun talks with the Taliban.

KHAR, Pakistan, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - At least 20 Al-Qaeda linked militants, eight of them foreigners, were killed when Pakistani helicopter gunships hit rebel hideouts in a tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said.

The casualties occurred on Wednesday in the Bajaur region, where Pakistani troops launched a major offensive against Islamic militants in August.

KABUL, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Former Taliban leaders said Wednesday they shared a meal with President Hamid Karzai's brother and other government officials in Saudi Arabia last month but stressed the meeting did not amount to peace talks.

WASHINGTON, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - A military investigation has found that more than 30 civilians were killed in an August 22 air strike in western Afghanistan -- not five to seven as the US military had long insisted, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

PARIS, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - The head of the French military General Jean-Louis Georgelin on Wednesday backed comments by a senior British military officer's view that the war in Afghanistan was unwinnable.

WASHINGTON, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - General David Petraeus said Wednesday that attempts are being made to open talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan and that the United States should be prepared to engage with its enemies.

His comments came a day after US presidential rivals Barack Obama and John McCain tangled over the question of directly engaging Iran in their second one-on-one debate.

WASHINGTON, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - A US military investigation has found that 33 civilians were killed in an airstrike August 22 in western Afghanistan but that coalition forces acted in keeping with the law of war, the US Central Command said Wednesday.

BERLIN, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet approved an extension of German participation in the NATO-led force in Afghanistan Tuesday and added 1,000 more soldiers to the mission, government sources said.

KABUL, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Over a quarter million Afghans have returned home this year from Pakistan and Iran, many of them reportedly due to economic and security uncertainties faced in exile, the United Nations said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said on Monday there was 'no reason to be defeatist' in Afghanistan, and refused to rule out the idea of negotiation with insurgents willing to reconcile with the Afghan government.

ISLAMABAD, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif is willing to broker talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, his spokesman said Tuesday, amid reports that Sharif is already playing a key role.

KABUL, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Afghan and international forces announced Tuesday they had killed nearly 60 militants in two days as the battle against Talban-led extremists continued.

With the insurgency growing more deadly since the October 7, 2001 US-led invasion, the Afghan government reiterated it would welcome peace talks.

BERLIN, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet approved an extension of German participation in the NATO-led force in Afghanistan Tuesday and added 1,000 more soldiers to the mission, a government spokesman said.

PARIS, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - France has invited Pakistan and Iran to take part in a meeting of Afghanistan's neighbours to help advance peace in the insurgency-hit country, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Tuesday.

'There will be a meeting, I hope in Paris, of neighbouring countries,' Kouchner told members of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee.

OSLO, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere began Tuesday a surprise visit to Kabul, nine months after he cut short his first visit following a bomb attack on his hotel in the Afghan capital, an official said.

'Mr Stoere has arrived in Kabul,' foreign ministry spokesman Anders Rikter told AFP. 'This visit was discreetly prepared for security reasons.'

OSLO, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere began Tuesday a surprise visit to Kabul, nine months after he cut short his first visit following a bomb attack on his hotel in the Afghan capital, an official said.

RIYADH, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - The Afghan government held talks with the Taliban in Saudi Arabia last month, a leading Saudi paper reported, despite denials from both Kabul and the Taliban that such talks had taken place.