Kabul  - Two soldiers under NATO command were killed and another was wounded Tuesday in a roadside bombing in south-eastern Afghanistan, the alliance said.

The attack happened in Khost city, the capital of the province of the same name, when a convoy of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was coming out of its base in the Sarbagh area.

"The attack killed two soldiers and wounded another," said an ISAF media officer in Kabul who declined to be named.

In accordance with ISAF rules, the media officer did not reveal the nationalities of the soldiers. Most of the forces deployed in the eastern and south-eastern provinces are US soldiers.

Kabul - Suicide attacks and roadside blasts killed four Afghan forces and two civilians in weekend attacks in Afghanistan, while elsewhere a government official was beheaded by militants and two rebels were killed in clashes, officials said Monday.

In the latest incident, a roadside bomb killed three Afghan police forces and wounded two others in the Khogyani district of eastern Nangarhar province, the interior ministry said in a statement.

A police vehicle and five AK-47 rifles were also destroyed in the blast, it said.

Kabul - Seven years after the fall of the Taliban, the number of Afghans hopeful of a peaceful future for their troubled country is dwindling fast, according to a survey published Monday.

Just 40 per cent of those asked thought their country was heading in the right direction, in a nationwide poll funded by the BBC, US broadcaster ABC and Germany's WDR/ARD.

Three years ago - the last time a similar poll was carried out - nearly twice as many Afghans, 77 per cent, were hopeful about the future.

Kabul - Three Afghan provincial officials, two of their bodyguards and one civilian were killed in separate attacks in eastern Afghanistan, while Afghan police forces backed by coalition troops killed ten suspected Taliban in the southern region, officials said Saturday.

Nahim Jan Shinwari, the district governor for Goshta district of eastern Nangarhar province and one of bodyguards were killed when their vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb in Bati Kot district of the province on Saturday, Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, spokesman for the provincial governor said.

Kabul - Seven suspected militants were killed in clashes with US-led troops in eastern and southern Afghanistan, while NATO forces shot to death an Afghan civilian after suspecting him to be a suicide bomber, officials said Friday.

The US military troops killed one suspected militant and detained nine others in a operation in Maghzoori area in the south-eastern province of Khost on Thursday, the US military said in a statement.

Kabul - In a clear sign of discord between Afghan government and its main backer, President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday that he has come under pressure from Washington for his criticism over civilian casualties caused by the US and NATO military troops.