13 killed, 20 injured in Afghan police bus bombing

KABUL, Afghanistan — A Turkish transport helicopter with at least 11 civilians was forced to make an emergency landing in a Taliban-controlled area in eastern Afghanistan, and the insurgents took all the people on board hostage, including eight Turks and a Russian, officials said Monday. The civilian aircraft landed in strong winds and heavy rain on Sunday in a village named Dahra Mangal in the Azra district of Logar province, southeast of Kabul, District Governor Hamidullah Hamid told The Associated Press.

One Afghan died and two were wounded in a suicide bomb attack early Monday outside the NATO base in Afghanistan where seven CIA agents were killed last year, police said.The car bomber targeted NATO's Forward Operating Base Chapman in the eastern province of Khost, near the border with Pakistan's tribal belt, a known refuge of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban."One civilian was killed and two Afghans working with US forces were injured," Khost police chief Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai told AFP.

The death toll from a Taliban attack on a bank in eastern Afghanistan has risen to 35, officials said Sunday, with more than 70 others injured.Seven Taliban suicide bombers armed with machine guns and grenades stormed a branch of Kabul Bank Saturday morning in Jalalabad city initiating a several hour stand off with security forces before detonating their devices."Around 35 people were killed and another 70 were wounded in yesterday's attack on Kabul Bank," provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai told AFP.The death toll had previously been given as 18.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Seven heavily armed Taliban fighters launched a pre-dawn attack near Afghanistan’s main airport Monday, apparently targeting NATO’s airport headquarters with rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine-guns and at least one large bomb. Two Afghan civilians were wounded and all the attackers were killed after an hours-long battle.

Five people including a policeman were killed and 14 others wounded Friday in a suicide car bomb attack on a police post in Khost, eastern Afghanistan, police said."The attacker used a Toyota van to attack a police post in Khost city," local police chief Abdul Hakim Eshaqzai told AFP."Among the dead is one police officer and four adult civilians and among the injured there are two police officers, two women and 10 other male adults."Eshaqzai added: "This is an act of terror and is done by the enemies of the people and government of Afghanistan."

KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber rammed his car into a U.S. convoy in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least 15 people including two American soldiers and four civilian contractors, officials said. The brazen attack made May the deadliest month this year for coalition forces. Cmdr. Bill Speaks, a spokesman for the U.S. Defense Secretary, confirmed that the two soldiers from the NATO military coalition who were killed in the bombing were Americans. He would not comment on the nationalities of the civilian contractors.

Eight people have been killed and 30 others injured in a suicide car bombing in Khost, eastern Afghanistan, police have said, updating an earlier toll and warning it could rise further.The incident, which was blamed on the Taliban, is the latest to target Afghan police who, with the country's army, are due to take control of security from international troops by 2014."The attacker used a Toyota van to attack a police post in Khost city," local police chief Abdul Hakim Eshaqzai told AFP.

Five people including a policeman were killed and 14 others wounded Friday in a suicide car bomb attack on a police post in Khost, eastern Afghanistan, police said."The attacker used a Toyota van to attack a police post in Khost city," local police chief Abdul Hakim Eshaqzai told AFP."Among the dead is one police officer and four adult civilians and among the injured there are two police officers, two women and 10 other male adults."