A landmine blast killed nine Afghan soldiers near the border with Pakistan today in the bloodiest attack yet on Afghanistan's new army.
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack which he said had killed four soldiers.
The US-trained Afghan army was formed after the overthrow of the Taliban government in late 2001. Some 18,000 US troops are engaged in the hunt for remnants of the Taliban militia and their al Qaeda allies in Afghanistan, mostly in the Pashtun south and east of the country that provided the radical Islamist movement with the backbone of its support.
The Taliban have vowed to fight on till they expel foreign troops from Afghanistan and defeat Afghan government forces.