The American soldier accused of slaughtering 16 Afghan civilians, most of them women and children, as they slept in villages adjacent to an army outpost in Kandahar province early last year is to plead guilty at a hearing next week in an attempt to stave off the death penalty, his lawyer said.

A helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan has killed five American service members, officials said today.

Iran's state TV has broadcast footage allegedly extracted from a CIA drone captured in 2011.

An American service member was killed and three others were wounded Thursday afternoon when a suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a heavily armored military vehicle just outside a base where US Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta had been visiting troops earlier in the day.

The intelligence chief was wounded in an assassination attempt in Kabul today.

Eleven people were killed in a Black Hawk helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan, including seven US soldiers and three Afghan allies, the Nato-led force in the country said.

Insurgent attacks in Afghanistan during the past three months were up 11 per cent, compared to the same period last year, according to the latest statistics on monthly violence released by the US-led coalition. 

Seven attackers were killed today after storming a base of the Nato coalition in Kandahar province of southern Afghanistan.

Three suicide attackers blew themselves up in the largest city in southern Afghanistan today, killing 22 people and wounding at least 50 others in a dusty marketplace that was turned into a gruesome scene of blood and bodies.

A group of suicide bombers armed with explosive-laden vests, automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades stormed a government compound today in western Afghanistan, killing at least seven people, officials said.

An Afghan soldier shot and killed two Nato soldiers at a base in southern Afghanistan today.

MP sent to investigate massacre suggests two women were raped but others deny her claim

The American soldier accused of shooting dead 16 Afghan villagers in a pre-dawn rampage has been flown to Kuwait, it has emerged.

Afghan officials come under fire as they distribute money to families of the bereaved