Kabul - A suicide bomber detonated his vehicle filled with explosives near a US military convoy in a northern province close to Kabul city, killing two Afghan civilians and wounding 20 others, including two US soldiers, officials said Monday.

The attacker targeted a parked US military vehicle in Char-e-Kar city near the residence of Parwan provincial governor on Monday morning, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.

"Two civilians were killed and 17 others were wounded with two of them in critical condition," Health Ministry spokesman Abdullah Fahim said. Three bodyguards for the governor were among the wounded people.

Kabul  - Five school children were killed in a suicide attack in eastern Afghanistan, while three more children were killed in a rocket attack in capital Kabul, officials said Sunday.

A suicide bomber targeted a government building in Mandozai district of south-eastern province of Khost on Sunday morning, killing eight people and wounding 50 others, Mohammad Yaqoub Khan, security chief of Khost police forces said.

He said that the bomber detonated his explosive-packed vehicle after he was stopped by Afghan security forces from entering the district chief's office, where dozens of local tribal elders had gathered for a meeting on security situation.

Chennai, Dec. 26 : Union Minister for Indian Overseas Affairs Vyalar Ravi today assured that the government was doing everything for the safe release of an Indian worker abducted in Afghanistan.

As the deadline to give ransom for release of the Simon Paramnathan ends on Friday, Ravi held over an hour-long meet with Tamil Nadu Chief minister M. Karunanidhi in Chennai at his Gopalapuram residence.

Vyalar Ravi after his meet with the Tamil Nadu CM, said that Chief Minister Karunanidhi wanted to ensure Simon''s safe and immediate release from the captivity of abductors in Afghanistan.

New York, Dec 25: The attack on NATO supplies provided the latest evidence of how extensively militants now rule the critical region east of the Khyber Pass, the narrow cut through the mountains on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The area encompasses what is officially known as the Khyber Agency, which is adjacent to Peshawar and is one of a handful of lawless tribal districts on the border. But security in Khyber has deteriorated further in recent months with the emergence of a young Taliban commander, The New York Times reported.

Escalating violence on the Khyber road has paralleled the rise of Hakimullah Mehsud, a young Taliban commander and lieutenant of Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the main Pakistani Taliban faction.

Kabul - A NATO soldier was killed by insurgent fire in eastern Afghanistan while four militants were killed in an operation by US-led coalition forces a southern region, officials said Wednesday.

The soldier of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed on Wednesday by "enemy fire," ISAF said in a statement.

The statement did not disclose the nationality of the soldier, nor the precise location of the incident, but most of the international forces stationed in the eastern provinces are US troops.

Tehran - Iran on Sunday warned the United States over the dispatch of a further 3,000 troops to Afghanistan early next year in support of some 30,000 troops already involved in the conflict with the Taliban.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in a press briefing in Tehran that the US should be careful of the consequences of its new policies in Afghanistan and not make the same mistakes as in Iraq.

US media on Saturday reported that Defence Secretary Robert Gates ordered the deployment of an additional combat aviation brigade, equipped with attack and transport helicopters.