Kabul - A top Afghan female police officer was shot dead by Taliban militants in southern Kandahar province, while three civilians were killed in a international military airstrike in eastern region, officials said Sunday.

Malalai Kakar, head of female officers of provincial police department Kandahar, was shot dead by two gunmen riding on motorbike on Sunday morning, said Zelmai Ayoubi, spokesman for the provincial governor.

Kakar died on the spot in Chounai area of Kandahar city, while her son who was riding in the same vehicle was wounded, Ayoubi said.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousif Ahmadi took responsibility for the attack and claimed that Kakar's son was also killed in the shooting.

Washington, Sept 28: President Asif Ali Zardari has denied that US and Pakistani forces had exchanged fire along the Afghan border this week, even as the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff acknowledged the two sides engaged in a brief firefight.

The Washington Post quoted Zardari as saying that Pakistani border forces shot warning flares on Thursday at two US helicopters that he believes inadvertently crossed into Pakistani territory from Afghanistan.

Washington, Sept 27 : A top US defence official has reportedly claimed that Pakistan had reassured him that its troops had no intention of using force against the US troops along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

“I''ve been given assurance by the senior military leadership in Pakistan that there is certainly no intent or plan to fire on (US) forces,” said Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman US Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Addressing a Pentagon news conference, he said that he received the reassurance last week during a visit to Pakistan, reported The News.

Raghagan (Pak), Sept 27: Members of the Pashtun tribe in Pakistan’s tribal areas have given stern warnings to the US forces that they should desist from incursions on Pakistani soil, else they would retaliate giving a befitting reply and killing any invader till death.

The tribesmen told this to the reporters who were taken to the Pashtun tribal fighters in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan in a bid to show the Pakistan Army had the support of locals for a month-long operation in the area, said to be an Al-Qaeda and Taliban hotspot.

Kabul - Afghan officials said Saturday they were trying to secure the release of 35 construction workers after their kidnappers released 118 labourers in western Afghanistan.

The militants who identified themselves as members of Taliban insurgents abducted 153 workers on their way to a construction site in Bala Bulok district of western Farah province on Sunday.

Three of the workers were released on Tuesday.

Kabul, Sept. 27 : Faced with an ever more aggressive Taliban, NATO alliance troops are planning a winter "development surge" in the form of civil works projects in eastern Afghanistan.

According to the Washington Post, the plan has been designed to win over tribes in regions near the Pakistan border and to prevent the younger generation from joining the Taliban''s ranks.

The paper quoted military officials here as saying that the troops will maintain their armed pressure simultaneously.