Taliban attack on Afghan combat post repelled, 80 dead

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Militants killed six Americans, including a young female diplomat, and an Afghan doctor in a pair of attacks in Afghanistan on Saturday. It was the deadliest day for the United States in the war in eight months.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan teenager killed an American soldier in eastern Afghanistan by stabbing him in the neck while he played with a group of local children, officials said Monday.

A suicide bomber on a bicycle killed nine people outside the defence ministry in central Kabul on Saturday during a visit to the Afghan capital by new US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

Pakistan on Monday denounced cross-border air strikes by NATO helicopters pursuing militants as a violation of its sovereignty as the alliance said its forces had the right to defend themselves.The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is fighting a Taliban-led insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan, said the attack Friday left more than 30 rebels dead.Pakistan said the helicopters intruded into its territory twice from the eastern Afghan province of Khost as they chased the militants.

The Taliban believed Beyar Khan Weyaar was the perfect candidate to prepare an insider attack on Afghan police, but instead he set a daring trap that has given a rare insight into suicide bombing tactics.

An improvised bomb laid by insurgents killed nine civilians, including women and children, in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, according to a NATO statement.The victims died when their vehicle hit the device in the Zurmat district of Paktya province, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said, with initial reports suggesting three young children may be among the dead.Colonel Rafael Torres, an ISAF spokesman, condemned the attack, saying the Taliban had "complete disregard for innocent women and children".

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.

A member of the Afghan army who acted as a prayer leader for troops has shot dead a British soldier in the year's first insider attack, according to officials in the region.