AP - NATO remains committed to fighting Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, the alliance's secretary-general said Thursday, although he acknowledged that recent fighting has slowed down reconstruction efforts.

AFP - NATO will ensure stability is provided in Afghanistan but this must be matched by the international community's commitment to develop the country, the alliance's chief has said.

AP - Coalition forces killed four al-Qaida suspects and captured three others in southeastern Afghanistan on Monday, while separate bombings killed three Afghan soldiers and two government employees in the south, officials said.

AFP - A bomb ripped through a provincial justice headquarters in southern Afghanistan, killing the department head and another employee and causing the building to collapse, officials said.

AFP - Thousands of Afghan, British, Canadian and US soldiers pushed with a major operation against a Taliban hotbed in southern Afghanistan, the US-led coalition has said.

AFP - Thousands of Afghan, British, Canadian and US soldiers pushed on with a major operation against a Taliban hotbed in southern Afghanistan, the US-led coalition said.

AP - More than 40 insurgents were killed Saturday as hundreds of coalition troops, many dropped by helicopter, wrested a desert town from the Taliban and U.S. forces battled militants across southern Afghanistan, officials said.

AFP - Two Taliban fighters were killed in a multinational operation in the south of Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has revealed.

AP - Coalition and Afghan forces killed more than 40 militants across southern Afghanistan on Saturday, including 10 in a large-scale air assault aimed at wresting a desert town from Taliban control.

AP - Coalition and Afghan forces killed more than 40 militants in clashes across southern Afghanistan on Saturday, according to the U.S. military.

AP - Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces killed nine militants after suspected Taliban fighters attacked two army checkpoints in the latest fighting to rock southern Afghanistan, an Afghan official said Friday.

A coalition air strike launched on Wednesday in Afghanistan killed 19 Taliban militants, the government said. The offensive was launched after a wave of renewed insurgency hit the Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan.

AFP - Police in Afghanistan's capital Kabul have arrested a man they said was planting a 10-kilogram (22-pound) bomb outside the information ministry.

AP - Coalition and Afghan forces repelled a brazen insurgent attack on a police headquarters in a southern Afghan town, killing at least 19 Taliban militants, the governor's spokesman said Thursday.

AP - Coalition and Afghan forces killed at least 19 Taliban militants during an insurgent attack on a police headquarters in southern Afghanistan, the governor's spokesman said Thursday.

AP - A suicide attack on a U.S. military convoy in eastern Afghanistan killed a boy playing nearby, while a market bombing in a southern border town left two people dead in the latest violence to sweep the country.

AP - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday on an unannounced visit to an air base north of Baghdad that the new Iraqi government is not yet ready to decide on security issues that will determine the pace of U.S. troop reductions this year.

AFP - US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited this dusty outpost to show US commitment to Afghanistan in a part of the country where the Taliban is fighting with newfound strength to make a comeback.

AP - Coalition and Afghan forces hunting a Taliban commander killed an estimated 30 extremists Tuesday in a raid on a hide-out in southern Afghanistan, the military said.

AFP - US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has reiterated Washington's support for Afghanistan's fight against the Taliban but said there must be more cooperation from its neighbours to stop "cross-bord­er violence".