Kabul - Afghan and international forces killed 40 suspected Taliban militants in the latest clashes in southern and eastern Afghanistan, while a suicide bomber killed himself and wounded a civilian in the northern region, officials said Sunday. The police chief of Afghanistan's restive southern Zabul province claimed Sunday that Afghan forces backed by US-led coalition air support killed 22 suspected insurgents in a clash.

Washington, Apr. 12 : The US Special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, has said that the western tribal areas of Pakistan, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) were the root cause of Afghanistan's instability.

Holbrooke said the region was a safe haven for extremists, and if destroyed, peace could return to Afghanistan in a relatively short period of time.

Kandahar (Afghanistan), Apr. 9 : At least five people were killed and 17 wounded when a suicide bomber attacked a police drug eradication unit in southern Afghanistan on Thursday.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the incident.

The Dawn quoted Helmand Province's Deputy Police Chief Kamaluddin, as saying that the attacker struck the patrol in Lashkar Gah, a major drug-producing area.

Kabul - A provincial governor in south-eastern Afghanistan said Thursday that US-led international troops killed five civilians including two women and a 7-day-old child and wounded two other women in an operation against suspected militants.

The coalition troops conducted an operation in a village near Khost city, the capital of the province of the same name Wednesday night "after they claimed that they were attacked by small arms fire," Hamidullah Qalandarzai, the provincial governor, told the German Press Agency dpa.

Ghazni (Afghanistan), Apr. 9 : Training the Afghan National Police and Army has apparently become a nightmare for the Americans.

If the experience of the American troops already training police officers in Afghanistan's Ghazni Province is any indication, better policing may be impossible for Afghanistan unless government officials at all levels stop cannibalising their civil administration and police force for profit.

Kabul  - A suicide bomber attacked a counternarcotics police unit in southern Afghanistan Thursday, killing five officers and wounding two, a police official said.

The attack, carried out by a bomber wearing a suicide vest, took place in Lashkargah, the capital of Helmand province, when counternarcotics police were embarking on a mission, deputy provincial police chief Kamaluddin Khan said.

"The bomber jumped in front of the convoy that was leaving the station," Khan said.