PM David Cameron hosts Afghan-Pakistan talks in UK

British Prime Minister David Cameron will hold key talks with leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan to discuss the peace process and prevent a Taliban resurgence when foreign troops withdraw from the war-torn country in 2014.
The talks at Chequers, Cameron's country retreat, with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai will focus on cross-border security and the prevention of a "Taliban resurgence" when foreign troops leave Afghanistan by the end of next year.
They are also expected to concentrate on how Pakistan and the international community can support the Afghan-led peace process.

The in-depth talks today follow a private dinner hosted by Cameron for Zardari and Karzai last evening at Chequers, north of London in Buckinghamshire.
Before start of the trilateral summit, the three leaders also had breakfast and then they stood together for photos at the countryside residence of the British Prime Minister.
Prime Minister's spokesperson confirmed that foreign ministers, chiefs of army staff, chiefs of intelligence and the chair of the Afghan High Peace Council are also involved in the talks for the first time and that the leaders are expected to make a joint statement later today.
"This trilateral process sends a very clear message to the Taliban: now is the time for everyone to participate in a peaceful political process in Afghanistan. As the prime minister has set out previously, a stable Afghanistan is not just in the interests of Afghans, but also in the interests of their neighbours and the UK," the spokesperson said.

"We share the same vision for Afghanistan: a secure, stable and democratic country that never again becomes a haven for international terror," he added.
This is the third round of discussions since Cameron initiated the three-way process last year, when the three leaders met in Kabul and New York.
With the NATO withdrawal expected in 2014, Karzai has said that he does not want a repeat of the mistakes made when Russia withdrew from Afghanistan a quarter of a century ago, plunging the country into civil war.
Karzai, however, questioned the real motive behind troop withdrawal by the West, which includes around 9,000 British troops.
"They feel fulfilled with regard to the objective of fighting terrorism and weakening al Qaeda, or they feel that they were fighting in the wrong place in the first place, so they should discontinue doing that and leave," Karzai said.
"There will not be peace in Afghanistan by having an agreement only between us and the Afghan Taliban. Peace will only come when the external elements involved in creating instability and fighting, or lawlessness in Afghanistan, are involved in talks," he was quoted by the Guardian as saying.

Kabul attack kills ex-Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani

Burhanuddin Rabbani, who headed team tasked with negotiating with Taliban, killed in suicide attack in his home.

Rabbani, a former president of Afghanistan, who served as president in the 1990s, was recently made the

head of the High Peace Council, tasked by Hamid Karzai, the current president, to reach out to the Taliban.

Mohammad Zaher, Kabul's criminal investigations chief, said two men "negotiating with Rabbani on behalf

of the Taliban" arrived at his house on Tuesday, one with explosives hidden in his turban.

"He approached Rabbani and detonated his explosives. Rabbani was martyred and four others including Masoom Stanekzai [his deputy] were injured".

Fazel Karim Aymaq, a member of the High Peace Council, said the men claimed to have come with special

messages from the Taliban and were thought to be "very trusted." When Rabbani appeared, the man shook the former president's hand and bowed in a sign of respect, Aymaq said. "Then his turban exploded.''

The blast broke windows in Rabbani's home and shook nearby houses. Initial reports said four bodyguards

had been killed but Zaher said this was incorrect. The latest in a series of targeted killings, Rabbani's is the most high-profile political killing since 2001.

He was president of the Afghan government that preceded the Taliban, a period of civil war that saw thousands of people killed. After he was driven away from Kabul by the Taliban in 1996, he became the nominal head of the Northern Alliance, which swept to power in the capital after the Taliban's fall in 2001.

Failure President Karzai, who cut short a trip to the United Nations in New York after hearing of the attack, called on Afghans to remain unified in the face of Rabbani's martyrdom. An emergency cabinet meeting was

called for on Wednesday. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon also condemned the killing and underscored the UN's commitment to "supporting Afghanistan and its people attaining peace and stability and to working in close co-operation with them," his spokesman said.

Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president, and Yousuf Raza Gilani, the prime minister, also condemned the attack. Amrullah Saleh, a former intelligence chief who fought against the Taliban under Rabbani, told Al Jazeera the attacks showed the government's failure in protecting high-profile figures.

"These attacks tell us that the policy of appeasement and deal making with the Taliban and Pakistan is not

going to lead to peace.

"By adapting a vague policy of so called reconciliation, [the government] has created confusion in our society

and weakened the government to the extent that they can't even protect high-profiled leaders in the capital."

Rabbani's death could also unleash the resentment building up among some senior Northern Alliance members, who have criticised Karzai for his peace efforts with the Taliban.

"If Karzai wants to keep Afghanistan united, he has to launch massive investigations and bring the culprits to justice."

US releases names of 30 troops killed in chopper crash

The Pentagon on Thursday released the names of the 30 US troops killed in an attack on a US helicopter in Afghanistan last week, despite earlier objections from the special operations commander.

The secretive US Special Operations Command had argued against identifying most of those aboard the chopper on grounds that the details could potentially put fellow troops and their families at risk, officials said.

But Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in the end rejected the request and approved divulging the names, in keeping with Pentagon practise. Under US law, the names of the SEALs are not classified, unlike those of Central Intelligence Agency officers.

The Defense Department's statement clarified reports about how many Navy SEAL commandos were killed in the crash, saying 17 SEALs had died while five other Navy sailors assigned to the SEAL unit were killed.

Officials had said previously that the dead included 22 of the Navy's elite Sea, Air and Land teams.

The dead included three Air Force special operations forces and the five-man Army crew of the Chinook helicopter.

A total of 38 people died when the CH-47 was shot down in the eastern province of Wardak, including seven Afghan troops and an interpreter.

The attack represented the most deadly incident for US and NATO forces since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001.

The Pentagon's press release did not confirm if any of the SEALs were part of the unit credited with the night raid that killed Osama bin Laden, known as "Team Six" or the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group.

The release only said 15 of the 17 sailors were assigned to an "East Coast-based Naval Special Warfare unit." Team Six is based in Virginia.

The highly-trained SEALs who died ranged in age from 24 to 44 years old.

Afghanistan: Deadly attack in Tarin Kowt, Uruzgan

Insurgents have carried out a gun and bomb attack in the south Afghan town of Tarin Kowt, Uruzgan province, leaving at least 22 dead, officials say.

They said the violence included three suicide bombings followed by fighting in a market, adding that all eight attackers had now been killed.

The dead include Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, a local BBC reporter.

The Taliban say they carried out the attack, which comes amid renewed violence in Afghanistan.
Nato says it is providing air support to Afghan forces in Tarin Kowt.

TV station stormed
fghan intelligence officials said at least one bomb exploded near the governor's office and one near the offices of a security firm owned by a local militia commander. It is not clear where the third bomb was detonated.
Most of the fighting took place near these offices, which are close to the main market and a building which houses a local radio and TV station.

Bilal Sarwary says the market was attacked from four sides, but the siege was broken by elite forces.

Residents said heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles were used by both sides.
Health officials said 22 people had been killed including three women and 40 injured, most of them civilians.
Among the dead is Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, a reporter for the Pashto radio service as well as the Pajhwok news agency.

He was one of several people killed when the TV and radio station was attacked.

BBC Global News director Peter Horrocks said: "The BBC and the whole world are grateful to journalists like Ahmed Omed who courageously put their lives on the line to report from dangerous places."
Two soldiers were among the dead but no senior government officials have been harmed, officials said.
 
'Doomsday'

Eyewitness Mohammad Dadu, a butcher at the market, told: ''I didn't have time to close my shop. I saw two dead bodies and four injured people with blood on their clothes.

"It feels like doomsday. Everyday people came to the market to shop. But today people are here collecting the dead and injured bodies of their relatives. There is blood, smoke from explosives and everyone has fled the area."

Afghan militants have stepped up their attacks as Nato troops begin the handover of security to local forces in parts of the country.

On Wednesday the mayor of the volatile city of Kandahar was killed in a suicide attack.

Two weeks ago, President Hamid Karzai's influential half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, was killed in the same city.

Suicide Bombing kills 5 French soldiers in Afghanistan

The suicide blast occurs in the volatile east. In a southern village, senior officials attend the funeral of President Hamid Karzai's assassinated half brother.

A suicide bombing killed five French soldiers in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, representing one of France's largest one- day losses of the war. The attack took place in the Tagab district of Kapisa province, provincial spokesman Sabor Wafa said.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force confirmed the deaths of five service members without specifying the nationality; French officials subsequently said the slain troops were French. France has said it will begin a phased withdrawal of its troops in Afghanistan.

Eastern Afghanistan, particularly the area close to the border with Pakistan, has been increasingly violent in recent weeks, with fighting between North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops and insurgents compounded by cross-border artillery fire from Pakistan. Also Wednesday, Western military officials reported that another military death occurred a day earlier in the south of Afghanistan.

The surge in violence comes as U.S. commanders prepare to begin a White House-ordered drawdown of American forces. Ten thousand troops are to depart before the end of the year, and an additional 23,000 are to leave next year. The mood across the south was jittery Wednesday as senior officials converged on the village of Karz, in Kandahar province, for the funeral of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the assassinated half brother of President Hamid Karzai.

Ahmed Wali Karzai, considered to be the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan, was shot and killed Tuesday by a police commander who had long been a trusted family associate. The governor of neighboring Helmand province escaped injury Wednesday when a powerful remote-controlled bomb exploded as his convoy was en route to the funeral.

The blast, in Kandahar's Maiwand district, injured two troops assigned to the Afghan intelligence service, but the governor, Gulab Mangal, was unhurt, aides said. Abdul Razaq, the police chief in Kandahar, said Wednesday that two other hidden bombs had been uncovered near Karz, the ancestral village of the Karzai clan, also apparently intended to target funeral attendees. Western troops had helped sweep the area beforehand.

In yet another violent episode Wednesday, insurgents used an explosives-laden truck to try to ram their way into a joint Afghan and Western base in Wardak province, close to the capital, Kabul. But the vehicle bomb went off prematurely when guards opened fire, and only the bomber was killed.

Ahmad Wali Karzai assassination 'huge propaganda boost for Taliban'

The assassination of Ahmad Wali Karzai, the chairman of the Kandahar Provincial Council and President Hamid Karzai's half-brother, is an enormous propaganda and moral boost for the Taliban.

It is as yet unclear who was responsible for Ahmad Wali's assassination. Even if it was carried out, as one report suggests, by a body guard with a personal grudge, it will certainly be exploited by the Taliban for propaganda purposes and will damage fragile public confidence in Karzai's government.

Ahmad Wali was one of the two key government players in the important southern province of Kandahar, which the insurgency would likely have considered as priority targets for assassination. The other is the police chief, Brigadier General Abdul Razik, another powerful Pashtun. Wali was the de facto governor of Kandahar, eclipsing the influence both of the official governor and the provincial council, of which he was chairman.

The provincial council does not wield any real authority. Neither does it have direct control over appointments to, or deployment of, security forces, even in Kandahar City. Ahmed Shah Khan, an influential Pashtun tribal elder could well emerge as Ahmad Karzai's successor on the council (since the deputy chairman was also killed in this attack) in the provincial council, in the form of a consensus candidate.

He is very unlikely to exert the overarching political and economic influence that Ahmad Karzai exerted through his financial clout, and close ties to the US. His assassination is likely to drive home a very stark message to the Afghan population, that the Afghan state under President Karzai is incapable of providing security, even for its own leadership.

As such, this will make it much harder for Nato to persuade the local population to switch their allegiance to the Afghan government as ISAF forces begin to hand over the security lead to Afghan. The immediate commercial impact of his death will be felt by the string of businesses owned by the 'King of Kandahar,' as the staunchly pro-US Ahmad Karzai was known; their future is now unclear.

These include influential private security companies, such as Watan Risk Management and Asia Security Group, which have contracts with ISAF for protecting its supply convoys. The latter also runs its own a private paramilitary unit in the province – the Kandahar Strike Force that assisted US Special Forces and the CIA to seek out and kill senior Taliban insurgents. Ahmad also owned or ran a string of hotels, real estate companies and even a Toyota car dealership.

He will also be remembered for the extensive narcotics empire that he ran from Kandahar, under the aegis of the provincial government. The smuggling operations he set up are unlikely to fracture in his absence. The Taliban are also quite likely to exploit the 'sense of shock' in Kandahar City by launching another major attack in the coming days.

Ahmad Karzai's funeral is a likely target, especially as this will be attended by prominent government and security force figures, and will be another test of the effectiveness of Afghan and ISAF security measures.

Afghanistan: Top hotel in Kabul attacked by suicide bombers

Two suicide bombers attacked a major hotel frequented by Westerners in Afghanistan's capital of Kabul late Tuesday, a police source said, and a witness said gunfire was heard for several minutes after one blast.

Gunfire tapered off several minutes after the blast was heard, the witness said. The police source, who asked not to be identified, had initially said a gunfight was still going on.

The police source said a wedding party was underway when the attack happened in or near the Intercontinental Hotel, one of two major hotels in the western part of Kabul often frequented by foreigners. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The hotel is built on a hillside in Kabul's west with heavy fortifications all round and is often used for conferences and by Western officials visiting the city. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said several fighters from the Islamist group had attacked the hotel, where Afghan and Western officials were supposedly holding security talks. Mujahid, who spoke to Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location, said heavy casualties had been inflicted.

The Taliban often exaggerate the number of casualties in attacks against Western and Afghan government targets. Police threw up roadblocks immediately after the blast, stopping people from approaching the area, and power was cut in the hotel and surrounding areas, the Reuters witness said.

Violence has flared across Afghanistan since the Taliban announced the start of a spring offensive at the beginning of May, with attacks in areas across the country. The increase in violence comes as NATO-led forces prepare to hand security responsibility to Afghans in seven areas from next month at the start of a gradual transition process that will end with all foreign troops leaving Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Violence across Afghanistan in 2010 had already its worst levels since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.

Afghanistan: 60 dead in a car bombing in Kabul hospital

A huge car bomb at a hospital today killed 60 in Afghanistan's worst attack for three years, days after US President Barack Obama said 10,000 US forces would leave the country this year.

The brazen suicide attack in Logar province, about 75 kilometres south of the capital Kabul, killed women and children and also wounded 120.

As an eyewitness described horrific scenes of victims on fire following the blast in the usually safe Azra district, officials described the attack as "unprecedented" in the near-decade-long Afghan war.

"Sixty of our countrymen including children, women, youths and men... have been martyred and 120 others including health workers have been injured," the ministry of public health said in a statement.

"This inhumane act is unprecedented in the history of the conflict in our country and targeted a place where wounds are healed and patients receive treatment."

Din Mohammad Darwaish, the Logar provincial spokesman, said the blast -- which took place close to Afghanistan's border with Pakistan -- was a suicide car bombing.

The Taliban denied it was behind the attack, which completely destroyed the building. Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said: "We condemn this attack on a hospital... whoever has done this wants to defame the Taliban."

One man who lives near the hospital, Abdul Rahman, told AFP that he lost seven relatives in the explosion.

"Seven members of my family including three women and two children went to that hospital this morning," he said, through tears.
"I was at home, then I heard a big explosion. When I rushed to the site, I saw many dead and injured people.

"Many of them were burning, on fire. There were body parts everywhere. My family is dead, I can't find them, they are under the rubble."

The huge blast caused the highest death toll in Afghanistan since a July 2008 car bomb attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul killed more than 60 people.
It came at the end of a week when Obama announced that 33,000 US forces would leave Afghanistan by the end of next summer.

All foreign combat forces are due to pull out of the country by the end of 2014. There are currently up to 150,000 foreign forces in Afghanistan, including about 99,000 from the US.

Some analysts fear that Afghan security forces may struggle to contain the insurgency, which has hit record levels of violence, as withdrawals begin.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack as "savage and ignorant" in a statement released by his office.

It came as Karzai told a counterterrorism summit in Tehran that militancy was on the rise in both his country and the region.

"Not only has Afghanistan not yet achieved peace and security but terrorism is expanding and threatening more than ever Afghanistan and the region," he told the opening session.

The two-day summit is being attended by the heads of state of six regional countries, including Afghan neighbours Iran and Pakistan.

The blast in Logar is the second major attack in Afghanistan in two days. Yesterday, 10 people were killed by a bicycle bomb which went off in a busy bazaar in Khad Abad district of the northern province of Kunduz.

Afghanistan: Fifteen dead in Kandahar blast

Fifteen people, including children, died when their vehicle was blown up in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province, the Interior Ministry says.

The attack took place in Arghandab district, an unstable area with a strong Taliban presence.

The ministry said another woman was injured in the attack.

This is the latest of several deadly attacks. The UN says May was the worst month for civilian casualties in Afghanistan since 2007.

Fierce fighting follows Kandahar attack

Heavy machine guns and grenades have been used by both sides

Intense fighting is taking place in Afghanistan's second city of Kandahar amid co-ordinated militant attacks, including at least six suicide bombs.

The Taliban says it is behind the triple assault on the provincial governor's office, the Afghan spy agency and a police station.

About 23 people including three police have been injured in the fighting, which spread panic on the streets.

US helicopter gunships are reported to have been involved.

Gunmen in a four-storey shopping centre exchanged fire with security forces in Governor Tooryalai Wesa's compound.

A spokesman for the Afghan spy agency, the National Directorate of Security, told the attack on the governor's compound was now over and two Taliban fighters had died.

He added: "But they are still attacking my office from a nearby Kandahar hotel. Fighting is still intense.

"They are using heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and AKs [AK-47s].
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 A Shopkeeper said "Forget human, even the birds have fled the city”

"Another attack is taking place in Mirwais Neeka area. We have also started searching some areas in the city.

"The Taliban could use the cover of darkness to launch more attacks. Kandahar is on a high state of alert.

"The Taliban planned this well in advance. They wanted to take control of key government offices and take senior Afghan officials hostage.''

There have been at least seven explosions, paralysing the city, says Bilal Sarwary in Kabul.

Two suicide bombers who tried to attack police were shot dead before they could reach their targets.

Witnesses described civilians running through the streets for safety and shopkeepers closing their stores in case of looting.

Military helicopters were hovering above the city.

"Forget human, even the birds have fled the city," a shopkeeper in Kandahar's Chowke Madad district told our correspondent.

Two schools and a municipal traffic office were also reported to have been attacked.

'One by one'

A witness quoted by Reuters news agency said earlier he saw black smoke rising near Mr Wesa's compound.
Kandahar map

Mr Wesa's spokesman, Zalmai Ayoubi, told Reuters from inside the compound that three civilians in the compound had been wounded, but the governor's staff were all fine.

The governor appeared on private Shamshad TV to say: ''I am alive and well, sitting with my friends here in my office.

"No matter how many fighters the Taliban have got in the city, they will be killed one by one.''

Afghan and US forces have launched a counter-operation. "The aim is to clear the shopping centre from Taliban," a local security official told our correspondent.

"We think there are 10 or more Taliban there - some of them suicide bombers. We want to clear the building.''

Nato said it was aware of the attack, and it was helping Afghans provide security, but that it was not aware of its helicopters taking part.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that the militants were trying to hide their defeat, following the killing of Osama Bin Laden, by attacking civilians.

But Taliban spokesman Yusuf Ahmadi said the Kandahar attacks had been planned for some time as part of the insurgents' annual "spring offensive", announced last week, and had nothing to do with Bin Laden's death.

Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban and a hotbed of the insurgency, has been the focus of military operations by the Western-backed government over the past year.

A senior Kandahar police official blamed the attacks on last month's escape by about 500 prisoners, many of them Taliban, from the main jail in the city.

The official, who did not want to be named, told our correspondent: "If 106 Taliban field commanders - some of them the very backbone of the insurgency - had not escaped from the prison, attacks like this would have not occurred."

Also last month, Kandahar's police chief was killed by an attacker in a police uniform, while in January Mr Wesa's deputy was killed.

Kandahar governor's compound under attack

An armed attack is under way in Afghanistan against the office of the governor of southern Kandahar province.

Gunmen based in a shopping mall in Kandahar city are exchanging fire with security forces in governor Tooryalai Wesa's compound in Kadahar city, witnesses report.

Two explosions have been heard in the city, one near the compound.
The Taliban insurgency says it is behind the assault.

Spokesman Yusuf Ahmadi claimed that "heavy casualties have been inflicted on the enemy".
A witness quoted by Reuters news agency said he could see black smoke rising near Mr Wesa's compound. It was not immediately clear whether the governor was inside.

Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents announced the start of their "spring offensive" last week, saying they would increase attacks against foreign troops and Afghan government officials.

Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban and a hotbed of the insurgency, has been the focus of military operations by the Western-backed government over the past year.

Taliban announce spring offensive

The Taliban have announced the start of a spring offensive across Afghanistan.
In a statement, the group said the fighting would start on Sunday, targeting foreign troops as well as Afghan security forces and officials.

It warned civilians to stay away from public gatherings, military bases, government buildings and convoys.
Meanwhile initial findings from a Nato inquiry into a deadly attack at Kabul airport on Wednesday suggest the gunman was not connected to the Taliban.

The man, an Afghan pilot, killed eight US troops and a contractor. He was later found dead.
The Taliban claimed the attack, but the coalition said there was no evidence for this and the gunman appeared to have acted alone.

Saturday's statement by the Taliban said the group would attack "foreign invading forces, members of their spy networks and other spies, high-ranking officials of the Kabul puppet administration".

It said the war would continue "until the foreign invading forces pull out of Afghanistan".

The Taliban have claimed a series of attacks in recent weeks - including the killing of Kandahar police chief Khan Mohammed Mujahid and a suicide bombing at an Afghan base near Jalalabad that killed five foreign and five Afghan troops.

However on Friday, a Pentagon report said the insurgents' momentum had been "broadly arrested" following a US troop surge last year.

Man opens fire on Americans in Kabul; 9 dead

Eight U.S. service members and an American civilian contractor were killed Wednesday in a shooting at an Afghan air force compound in Kabul, officials said.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said an Afghan military pilot opened fire on international troops, sparking a "gunfight." The Taliban, however, claimed responsibility for the attack and said it had been working with the shooter for some time -- an assertion that NATO denied.

Also denying the Taliban claim was the brother of the pilot.

"My brother had no connections with the Taliban, and I deny any claims of his connection by the Taliban," Dr. Mohammad Hosain Sahebi told a local Afghan TV station in a telephone interview.

He said his brother, Ahmad Gull, 48, was in the Afghan Air Force for several years and was injured many times in plane crashes. The Afghan military, however, listed the pilot as being 50 years old.

"My brother had mental sickness as the result of the plane crashes in 80s and also he had economic problems too," Sahebi told local television.

One witness, Jon Mohammad, a military pilot at Kabul Airport, told that he jumped from a second floor window to the ground during the incident. He saw foreigners laying on the ground inside the first floor, he said.

"He was religious person, but I'm not sure if he had mental illness," Mohammad said of Gull, the pilot.
The shooting started at the Afghan national air force compound at North Kabul International Airport after an argument between the Afghan pilot and an international colleague, officials said. The NATO-led force said the Afghan military pilot opened fire on international trainers and a "gunfight" ensued.

"A 50-year-old man opened fire at armed U.S. military soldiers inside the airport after an argument between them turned serious," said Col. Baha Dur, chief of public relations for the Afghan National Army at Kabul military airport.

NATO said the confrontation took place at 10:25 a.m. at the airport, where a quick reaction force responded to a "small arms fire incident." The airport is home to NATO Air Training Command Afghanistan.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the killings "by an Afghan military pilot."

Zaher Azimi, a spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, said the killings upset Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak and that "he shares the pain with the families of the victims."

Despite the account by international troops, a Taliban spokesman said a man named Azizullah was responsible.

"One suicide attacker ... managed to attack an Afghan military unit and has managed to kill many Afghan and international soldiers," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said.

The Taliban said the man killed nine foreigners and five Afghans before being killed by the Afghan army.
"We had worked hard on this plan for a long time," Mujahid told reporters. "He was cooperating with us since long time and he was providing us information about military air operations for a long time."
NATO disputed the Taliban claim.

"We do not know why it started but there is no indication that a suicide bomber was involved and there are no reports that someone managed to get into the base to do this," the NATO-led force said in a statement.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for previous conflicts between NATO service members and members of the Afghan military. Reporters could not independently verify the group's claims.

The Taliban said the man was once a pilot in an Afghan regime in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"Since the current Afghan air forces have no planes so, he was just going to Kabul airport to show up and earn his salary for a long time," Mujahid told reporters.

The man "was holding the rank of colonel at the time and he had an AK-47 with him. After his bullets were finished, then he was shot to death by armed forces," Mujahid reporters.

There was confusion about the death toll. The NATO-led force initially said six service members were killed. It raised that toll to nine but backed away temporarily before saying again that the shooting killed nine people -- eight international service members and a civilian contractor. The Pentagon confirmed that all were Americans.

Violence between Afghan forces and NATO troops is a matter of extreme concern for NATO officials, and it is growing in frequency.

There have been 36 NATO deaths in the past two years attributed to attacks by people perceived to be Afghan soldiers or police. Officials fear that the increasing frequency of the attacks could undermine trust between NATO troops and the Afghans they are working hard to prepare so they can eventually take over security in the country.

The Taliban's claim that the Afghan gunman was their recruit follows a now familiar pattern of the insurgency stating that attacks are theirs, even though NATO later suggests the gunman was acting out of personal motivation.

Out of 16 incidents of Afghan forces shooting NATO personnel that NATO has investigated, eight have been determined to be motivated by combat stress on the part of the Afghan attacker. The other eight investigations are undetermined.

Hundreds of prisoners escape from Afghan jail

More than 400 prisoners escaped early Monday from a jail in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for facilitating the escape and said 541 prisoners fled. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said the number was closer to 470.

Waheed Omer, a spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, called the mass prisoner escape "bad news and a disaster."

It was the second mass escape from the prison.

In June 2008, up to 1,000 prisoners -- almost half of them Taliban members -- escaped after militants detonated a large truck bomb against the side of the compound.

Police have launched a wide operation for Monday's escapees and have recaptured eight, the Kandahar governor's office said

Taliban members spent five months digging a tunnel that stretched nearly 1,050 feet (320 meters) to the prison, said Zabiullah Mujahed, a Taliban spokesman. The escape took place over four and a half-hours, Mujahed said.

"We are aware of reports that a tunnel was involved," NATO said in a statement.

Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban and has been site of fierce fighting between international forces and insurgents.

It has been the site of numerous anti-Western demonstrations, recently over the burning of the Quran by a pastor in the United States.

On April 15, the police chief of Kandahar province was killed when a man wearing a military uniform detonated a bomb at the entrance to the police headquarters.

In February, 10 people died when mines exploded at a playground during a picnic hosted by a former police commander. In a seperate incident, 19 people, including 15 police officers, died when armed attackers targeted police headquarters.

Suicide attack on Afghanistan defence minister

A man in army uniform opened fire inside the Afghan defence ministry in Kabul killing two soldiers and hurting seven people.
 
The attacker, who was also wearing an explosive vest, reached the second floor, where the defence minister and the army chief of staff have offices.

He managed to shoot aides to the minister and the chief-of-staff before being killed by bodyguards.
The Taliban said they had intended to kill the "puppet" defence minister.

This is the fourth deadly attack in the last five days, but the first time a gunman has got so close to such a senior official.

On Saturday, five Nato soldiers, four Afghan soldiers and an interpreter were killed when a Taliban suicide bomber wearing a military uniform hit an Afghan army base near the eastern city of Jalalabad.

On Friday, a suicide bomber dressed as a policeman blew himself up inside the police headquarters complex in the city of Kandahar, killing the police chief of the southern province, Khan Mohammad Mujahid.

Checkpoints 

A senior Afghan security official told that the attacker was wearing the uniform of a colonel in the Afghan National Army (ANA).

He managed to pass through checkpoints outside and inside the ministry building with a weapon and suicide vest because he had a valid ID, the official added.

After reaching the second floor of the building, he was confronted by bodyguards deployed there and a fire-fight erupted.

The assailant was eventually killed, but not before he had shot dead two ANA soldiers and wounded seven others, including the two senior aides.

However, he was not able to detonate his suicide vest, the security official said. Local media have reported that there was an explosion.

A Taliban spokesman said they were behind the attack and had intended to kill Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak. Mr Wardak was not inside the building at the time, the official added.

Separately, the Taliban told the Associated Press that the attack had been planned to coincide with the visit of French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet, who they believed was meeting officials inside the ministry.

Mr Longuet, who met French troops in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, had been scheduled to meet Afghan officials on Monday at an unspecified location, French military spokesman Lt Col Eric de Lapresle said.
Officials in Paris told the AFP news agency they had no evidence that the attack was an attempt to kill Mr Longuet.

The defence ministry is located in the centre of Kabul, close to the presidential palace and other ministries.
The road leading to the building was closed off on Monday afternoon, with even ministry employees being turned away.

Our correspondent says serious questions will be asked how the attacker got inside one of Afghanistan's most important buildings.

On Sunday, a defence ministry spokesman said it had been able to stop potential suicide bombers and the Taliban infiltrating the army.

5 American troops killed in Afghanistan bombing

Five troops killed in a suicide bombing at a military base in Afghanistan were members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, a senior U.S. military official said Sunday.

Earlier, authorities had said only that five members of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, which includes troops from the United States and other nations, were killed in the Saturday incident.

The families of all five have been notified of the deaths, and a formal announcement from the Army is forthcoming, said the official, who declined to be identified pending the announcement.

On March 29, the same Army division lost six troops in a series of firefights in eastern Afghanistan.

On Saturday, a suicide bomber wearing an Afghan military uniform struck, killing the five, at a military base, Forward Operating Base Gamberi, in eastern Afghanistan's Laghman Province. The attack came during a meeting between Afghan soldiers and their ISAF mentors.

Four Afghan National Army troops were also killed and eight others, including four translators, were wounded, Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said in a statement. The wounded were all in good condition, Azimi said.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mojahed claimed 12 foreign soldiers and four Afghan military service members died in the attack. He said the bomber, Abdul Ghani, "joined the Afghan National Army a month ago in order to kill the invaders."

The Laghman Province base is controlled by Afghan security forces. Azimi said Saturday he would not comment on the Taliban spokesman's claim.

While clear progress is being made security-wise in eastern Afghanistan, civilians are under duress, according to the U.S. military official.

In February and March of this year, insurgent attacks on civilians increased 330 percent compared to the same period last year, the official said. In February and March 2010, insurgents injured or killed 82 civilians; this year, the total for those two months was 353 civilians.

Koran protests in Kandahar and Jalalabad

At least one person has been killed and 18 injured in a third day of protests in Afghanistan over the burning of a Koran in the US last month.

Hundreds of demonstrators marched in Kandahar, Jalalabad and other areas on Sunday.
On Friday, 14 people, including seven UN staff, were killed in Mazar-e Sharif after similar protests.


US President Barack Obama described the killings as "outrageous" and the Koran burning as "intolerance and bigotry".


Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called on the US Congress to condemn the Koran burning and prevent it from happening again.

A statement from his office said Mr Karzai made the request at a meeting with Gen David Petraeus, the commander of international forces in Afghanistan.

Ten people in Kandahar died and dozens were injured following Saturday's protests.


Protests spread
On Sunday, demonstrators in Kandahar city - the birthplace of the Taliban - marched on the main UN office.
At least one person was killed when a gas canister exploded in Kandahar.

Interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said the canister was in a traffic police booth which was set alight by protesters, the AFP news agency reported.

Smaller protests were also reported in two other districts of Kandahar province, and in Parwan province, north of the capital, Kabul.

There are conflicting reports that at least one other person may have been killed, but it is not clear at which protest. At least 18 people were injured.

In the eastern city of Jalalabad, hundreds of demonstrators peacefully blocked a main road for three hours on Sunday.

The crowd shouted for US troops to leave Afghanistan and burnt an effigy of Mr Obama, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene.

The UN's chief envoy to Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura, blamed Friday's violence in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif on the Florida pastor who burnt the Koran on 20 March.

"I don't think we should be blaming any Afghan," Mr de Mistura said. "We should be blaming the person who produced the news - the one who burned the Koran. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from offending culture, religion, traditions."

The UN would temporarily re-deploy 11 staff members to Kabul while their office in Mazar-e Sharif was rebuilt, he said, but there would be no evacuation.

In a statement published on Saturday evening, Mr Obama extended his condolences to the families of those killed by the protesters in Afghanistan.

"The desecration of any holy text, including the Koran, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry," he said. "However, to attack and kill innocent people in response is outrageous, and an affront to human decency and dignity.

Condemnation
The controversy began in Florida on 20 March, when Pastor Wayne Sapp soaked a Koran in kerosene, staged a "trial" during which the Islamic holy book was found guilty of "crimes against humanity", and then set it alight.

The incident took place under the supervision of Pastor Terry Jones, who last year drew condemnation over his aborted plan to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.


The authorities in both Kandahar and Mazar-e Sharif have blamed the Taliban for the violence. However, the Taliban has rejected the accusation.

Pastor Jones has said that the Dove World Outreach Center's congregation does not "feel responsible" for the attack.

The protests began in Mazar-e Sharif on Friday, when protesters marched on the UN compound.

Several demonstrators were killed by guards at the compound, who were then overpowered by the mob.

Munir Ahmad Farhad, a spokesman for the governor of Balkh province, said the group seized weapons from the guards and stormed the building. Four Nepalese guards, a Norwegian, a Romanian and a Swede were killed.