Berlin (dpa) - International troops are likely to remain in Afghanistan for at least five and possibly 10 years, German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung indicated Tuesday.

The Afghan military and police should be able to ensure security on their own within this timeframe, Jung told German national public broadcaster ZDF.

Only then could the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) begin to consider withdrawing its troops, Jung said.

The German defence minister declined to be drawn on a more precise timetable.

Germany has a maximum of 3,500 troops deployed to Afghanistan, most of them securing the relatively peaceful north of the country for reconstruction teams to operate.

London, June 2 : Commander of British forces in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, Brig Mark Carleton-Smith has claimed that the Taliban was now on the brink of defeat, as scores of them have been killed, most of them in southern and eastern Afghanistan, over the past two years.

He said that the new “precise and surgical” tactics have killed an estimated 7000 Taliban over the past two years, and made it extremely difficult for Pakistan-based Taliban leaders to prosecute the campaign.

Kabul  - An Afghan police official claimed on Monday that their forces backed by international troops killed and wounded dozens of militants after Taliban fighters attacked police posts in western Afghanistan.

Around 200 Taliban fighters attacked police posts in Bala Murghab district in western Badghis province on Sunday night, Abdul Raouf Ahmadi, spokesman for the police force in the western region, said.

Peshawar, June 2 : Signaling that they are the virtual rulers in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, the pro-Taliban militants in Swat Valley have set up their own court in the Piochar village of Matta tehsil to resolve the local cases involving disputes over land or money.

The Taliban said that three cases were heard in the court headed by a Qazi. While two cases were about land disputes, the third one was a feud over money, the Daily Times quoted them as saying.

However, a spokesman for the local Taliban cleric Mullah Fazlullah denied the working of a Taliban court in Piochar. He said that a jirga, and not a court, to resolve disputes between local people had been established in the area by the Taliban.

Kabul  - A remote-controlled bomb that targeted an Afghan army bus in capital Kabul on Sunday killed one woman and wounded one civilian and three soldiers, officials said.

The bomb, hidden on a road divider in western part of Kabul city, was remotely detonated as an army bus was passing by, defence ministry said in a statement.

"Three army officers, two civilians were wounded and one civilian, who was a woman, was martyred in the attack,' the statement said.

Kabul - Afghan interior ministry claimed on Saturday that their forces killed more than 100 Taliban insurgents in operation to retake Taliban-held town, while a suicide bomber in eastern region wounded eight including four coalition soldiers, officials said.

The operation to retake Bakwa district in south-western province of Farah started on late Thursday, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.

"More than 100 Taliban militants including five of their commanders were killed in operation, which was still ongoing and was led by Afghan police and army soldiers," Bashary said.

Kabul  - Afghan interior ministry claimed on Saturday that their forces killed more than 100 Taliban insurgents including five rebel commanders in an operation in which they took control of a Taliban-held town in western region.

The operation to retake Bakwa district in south-western province of Farah started on late Thursday, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.

Kabul  - A suicide bomber Saturday rammed his explosives- packed vehicle into a convoy of coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan, killing himself and wounding four soldiers and as many civilians, officials said.

The attack took place in Jalalabad city, provincial capital of Nangahar province, said Abdul Ghafour Khan, spokesman for the provincial police chief.

He said that four Afghan civilians were wounded and five civilian vehicles were also damaged in the city-centre attack.

Kandahar  - A district governor and his bodyguard were shot dead in southern Afghanistan, while the US military said they killed several Taliban militants as Afghan forces retook control of a town in the southern region, officials said Saturday.

An Afghan district governor for Mezan district in southern Zabul and his bodyguard were killed by unknown gunmen in Qalat, the provincial capital on Friday night, police official Abdul Matin said.

Kabul, May 31: Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has said that any peace deal by Pakistan with the Taliban in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) which puts Afghanistan at risk, would be raised with the leadership in Islamabad.

The statement comes days after Pakistan struck peace deal with Taliban.

Karzai said that the agreement should not compromise his country's interests, failing which Kabul would be "extremely angry".

Kabul, May 30 : General Dan K. McNeill, the US commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, has raised concerns that Pakistan had not followed through on promises to tackle militancy on its side of the border, and in recent months had even stopped its cooperation with NATO on border issues.

General McNeill said Pakistan’s failure to act against militants in its tribal areas and its decision to hold talks with the militants without putting pressure on them had led to an increase in insurgent attacks against US and NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan.

“We have not seen the actions that we had expected late last year; we have seen a different approach,” he told reporters on Thursday.

Kabul - A US coalition soldier and several militants were killed while 20 insurgents were captured, officials said Friday.

A statement from Bagram airbase near Kabul said the soldier was killed in combat in south-western Farah province on Thursday.

THe US military also claimed it killed several militants and captured 16 others Thursday in Ghazni province.

Kabul - A suicide attack against foreign forces in Kabul killed at least three civilians and wounded seven others, while Afghan army claimed on Thursday they have killed at least 30 Taliban in the western region, officials said.

The bomber, who was driving an explosive-packed vehicle, targeted a foreign military convoy in eastern part of Kabul city on Thursday morning, Alishah Paktiawal, criminal investigation chief of city police said.

Suralpady (Karnataka), May 29 : Sarang Mohammad Naeem, an Indian who was kidnapped in Afghanistan, returned to his hometown Suralpady in Mangalore.

Naeem was among the two kidnapped road workers from India and Nepal freed by Afghan security forces in a raid on May 18.

The duo, employees of a road project, was seized from a vehicle while traveling on a highway on April 21 in the western province of Herat, which borders Iran.

Naeem, who was working for a Dubai-Canadian company in a road construction project in remote Adraskan on the Afghanistan-Iran border, was abducted along with a Nepalese colleague on April 21.

Kabul - A suicide attack against foreign forces in capital Kabul killed at least three civilians and wounded five others, police said.

The bomber, who was driving an explosive-packed vehicle, targeted a foreign military convoy in eastern part of Kabul city on Thursday morning, Alishah Paktiawal, criminal investigation chief of city police said.

He said that three civilians were killed and five others were wounded in the attack, but could not say if there were any casualties on the side of international forces.

Kabul - An Afghan army commander in western Afghanistan claimed on Thursday that their forces supported by NATO warplanes killed 30 Taliban militants in fight that left three Afghan security forces also dead.

The clash took place in Bala Bulok district of south-western Farah province on Wednesday when Afghan army and police conducted an operation after getting intelligence information regarding the presence of rebels in the area, army commander in western region, Jalander Shah Behnam said.

Kabul  - At least two police officers and five civilians were wounded in two separate suicide attacks in southern and south-eastern Afghanistan, official said on Wednesday.

Police fired on a suicide bomber who was driving a vehicle filled with explosives toward a military base with US and Afghan troops in Gurbaz district of south-eastern Khost province, said Mohammad Ayoub, provincial police chief.

He said three Afghan civilians were injured in the explosion Wednesday morning.

In another attack, a man riding a motorbike packed with explosives detonated himself near a police vehicle in Lashkargah city, in southern Helmand province, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussain Andewal said.

Kabul, May 28 : A 14-year-old Pakistan boy caught by Afghan authorities recently has revealed how he was trained at a madarassa in Pakistan, where his trainers told him that he won’t die if he carried out a suicide attack and that only the foreigners will die.

The 14-year-old “suicide bomber” is currently kept in an Afghan intelligence agency’s detention centre, the Daily Times quoted a report in Chicago Tribune as saying.

He revealed that he was driven across the border to Khost, an eastern Afghan city near the border and a US military base. But before Shakir could launch an attack - on March 20, to coincide with the Afghan New Year - the explosives-filled car stalled in a dry riverbed.

Kotkai (Pak-Afghan Border), May 28 : A key Taliban leader has said that they will not accept any government condition to stop cross-border movement (into Afghanistan) to finalise a peace deal.

He said that the Pakistan government’s negotiators were insisting on a pledge to stop cross-border attacks, but the Taliban will not commit to such an agreement.

“First, we will not accept such a ban. But we hope the peace deal will be inked without a clause that puts restrictions on mujahideen to cross the border (into Afghanistan),” the Daily Times quoted Abu Zakwan, Taliban commander in the Kotkai area of South Waziristan, as saying last weekend.

Kabul  - A roadside bomb blast in south-western Afghanistan killed eight civilians, while A US-led coalition soldier has died of injuries he sustained in an accident, officials said Tuesday.

A mini-bus carrying passengers was blown up by a roadside bomb in Del Aram district in Farah province on Tuesday morning, Younus Rasouli, deputy provincial governor told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"Eight people, all of them civilians were killed in this attack," Rasouli said, adding that police units were deployed to the area to assist with evacuation.

Abdul Mutalib Rad, spokesman for the police forces in western zone, also confirmed the incident and said one civilian was wounded.