Kabul - Two police officers and three civilians were killed in two Taliban attacks in eastern Afghanistan, while police supported by NATO troops killed five Taliban fighters including a commander in the volatile south, officials said Tuesday.

Rebels ambushed a police vehicle in the Ghazni Abad district of the eastern province of Kunar Monday night, killing two border police officers, said Abdul Jalal Jalal, provincial police chief.

Four other policemen were wounded, he said, adding that police units were deployed to the area to track down the attackers.

London - Tensions within the NATO alliance and lack of progress in the fight against Taliban forces are undermining the international mission in Afghanistan, a leading British think tank warned Tuesday.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said that the Taliban were stepping up the use of suicide bombings and expanding their operations into areas that were previously calm.

At the same time, NATO members were struggling to agree among themselves what constituted "success" in Afghanistan while the global economic crisis meant that military budgets throughout the alliance were coming under pressure.

Islamabad - The United States has deducted 55 million dollars out of the 156 million dolalrs bill sent by Pakistan for rendering its military services to fight against Taliban and Al-Qaeda in volatile bordering tribal areas adjacent to war-torn Afghanistan.

Shaukat Tarin, a financial advisor in the prime minister's office, said the US had "changed the format" for money released under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) for Islamabad, resulting in a "massive" deduction.

Helmand (Kabul), Jan 23: Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has urged Pakistan to cooperate in removing the menace of terrorism from the region.

Speaking in Helmand airbase in Southwest Afghanistan on Thursday, Karzai said there was need for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan to work together to root out terrorism from the region.

He expressed the hope that Pakistan would extend its full cooperation in removing the menace from its soil.

Kabul  - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday welcomed the decision by US President Barack Obama to close down the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

This decision by the new US administration was "a good step in getting international support for the war against terrorism and enclosure of all nations into this fight," Karzai was quoted as saying in a press release.

Obama on Thursday signed directives setting a one-year deadline for closing Guantanamo.

Kabul  - A high-ranking militant believed responsible for the suicide bombing of the German embassy in Kabul earlier this month was killed and another one captured, the international ISAF forces said Friday.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force supported Afghan forces in raiding compounds in the Afghan capital and the neighbouring Logar province in the night from Thursday, ISAF said in a statement.