Kabul - The fledgling Afghan national army was to grow to more than 100,000 troops by the end of this year, a spokesman said Monday.

The troops are to be trained by US-led international forces, as NATO commanders in Afghanistan demand additional soldiers to effectively combat the resurgent Taliban militants.

So far a total of 85,000 army soldiers, drawn from Afghanistan's various ethnic groups, have been trained by military officers from the US, France and Britain since the start of the program in 2002.

Peshawar, Jan 5 : The Taliban has imposed restrictions on co-education in Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan after banning girls' education in Swat.

Pamphlets attributed to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were distributed in the tribal areas, asking school owners and teachers to close down all institutes offering co-education even at the pre-school level.

The pamphlets in Urdu asked the government to stop issuing identity cards to women `with or without pictures', The Nation reported.

Islamabad, Jan. 3 : Pakistan has arrested a former Taliban spokesman, who was released by Afghanistan in 2007 in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist.

The Dawn quoted security officials as saying that Ustad Mohammed Yasir was detained in Peshawar, near the Afghan border.

Yasir was Taliban leader Mullah Omar''s spokesman after the regime''s fall in Afghanistan in 2001, an official said Saturday.

He said Pakistan first arrested Yasir in 2005 and sent him to Afghanistan, where he was released along with four other Taliban figures for journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo.

Jamrud, Jan. 3 : Transportation on the Landikotal Highway, the main route used for supplying rations and ammunition to the allied forces in Afghanistan, resumed after the military operation to flush out the Taliban from the area concluded on January 2.

"300 trucks, several carrying NATO supplies, passed into Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass," the Daily Times quoted local administration chief Tarq Khan, as saying.

Authorities have claimed that the `Operation Daraghlam' against the Taliban and criminals in the Khyber Agency achieved `80 percent' of its target,

Kabul  - A NATO-led British soldier was killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, marking the first loss of the new year for the international forces in the war-ravaged country, officials said Friday.

The soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack in Sangin district of the southern province of Helmand on Thursday, New Year's Day, a NATO spokesman in Afghanistan said.

Kabul  - Eleven insurgents were killed in a fight with US-led troops near Kabul city, while six other militants were killed in NATO-led airstrike in eastern region, the military said Wednesday.

The militants loyal to Hezbi Islami, an associate group of Taliban militants, were killed in Sarobi district of Kabul province on Tuesday, US military said in a statement.