US-led forces searched mountains in eastern Afghanistan today for an American unit missing for four days, while a bomb attack on a convoy including UN and US vehicles killed at least four Afghan troops.
The blast in the southeastern province of Paktika slightly wounded the provincial police chief and critically wounded his driver, as well as killing four soldiers, Paktika Governor Gulab Mangal said.
The incident came amid growing violence by Taliban and allied militants aimed at derailing September 18 parliamentary polls, the next big step in Afghanistan's difficult path to stability.
Mangal said the 20-25 vehicle convoy included UN officials and US soldiers from Paktika's Provincial Reconstruction Team, as well as officials of the province, police and army.
UN spokesman Adrian Edwards said reports from UN staff said that four police officers and two Afghan soldiers had been killed, but there were no UN or US casualties.
Edwards said the UN staff had been on a mission to discuss security with tribal leaders.
Hundreds have died in militant-related violence since March, including 30 US troops, hundreds of guerrillas, and dozens of members of the Afghan security forces.
A US military statement said a US-Afghan patrol killed two more militants, wounded one and captured two on Saturday after coming under attack in troubled Kandahar province. It said another militant was killed in a clash there on Thursday.
Afghan officials have reported at least 50 other deaths, more than half of them of guerrillas, in Taliban-related violence in the restive south and east in the past three days alone.
Today, the governor of the central province of Uruzgan said police had killed 18 Taliban guerrillas and lost two of their own men in fresh fighting there on Friday night.
Earlier, a spokesman for the US military said US aircraft had attacked a militant compound yesterday in Kunar province, where a search for a missing US reconnaissance team has been under way.
Lieutenant-Colonel Jerry O'Hara said he had no information to support a Taliban claim that the strike had killed 25 civilians.