Kabul - A US soldier has been killed in Afghanistan in an operation targeting Islamic State group insurgents, commanders said Thursday, in the latest blow to American forces in the war-torn nation.

Kabul - The Taliban published an open letter to US President Donald Trump on Tuesday warning him against sending more American forces to Afghanistan.

Jalalabad - Several civilians have been killed in an US airstrike in eastern Afghanistan, local officials said Friday, the latest setback in efforts to bring peace to the war-torn country.

Washington - The Trump administration is considering a plan to turn over much of the Afghan US war effort to private contractors supposedly as a means of breaking the stalemate in the war against the Taliban.

Mazar-e Sharif - Taliban and Islamic State fighters unleashed a killing spree targeting civilians after capturing a remote village in northern Afghanistan, traumatised families said Wednesday after being released by the insurgents.

Mazar-e Sharif - The Taliban released 235 hostages from a remote village in northern Afghanistan where it allegedly massacred around 50 civilians along with Islamic State insurgents but others were still feared held, officials said Tuesday.

Kabul - The Taliban -- which banned poppy cultivation when it ruled Afghanistan -- now appears to wield significant control over the war-torn country's heroin production line, providing insurgents with billions of dollars, officials have told AFP.

Kabul - The Taliban and Islamic State group jointly massacred dozens of civilians in an Afghan village, officials said Monday, highlighting rare co-operation between the insurgents that could increase the strain on Afghanistan's beleaguered security forces.

Kabul - Afghan intelligence officials said Sunday they seized a truck in Kabul carrying more than 16 tonnes of explosives hidden in boxes marked as poultry feed, months after a truck bomb killed about 150 people.

Kandahar - Two Afghan police officers were killed and a NATO soldier was wounded in an apparent insider attack in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said.

Kabul - Infamous Afghan warlord and ex-prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar rejected any increase in US troops Saturday as he said elections were the only way to bring stability to the war-torn country.

Kabul - A Georgian soldier was killed in a Taliban suicide bomb attack on a convoy of foreign forces near Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, NATO said Friday.

Herat - The father of an Afghan girl who represented her country in a robotics competition in the United States died in this week's Herat mosque attack, her family said Thursday.

Herat - Thousands of Shiite protesters chanted slogans against the Islamic State group Wednesday as they carried the coffins of victims of a mosque attack that killed 33 people in the western Afghan city of Herat.

Kandahar - A Taliban suicide bomber Wednesday rammed a vehicle filled with explosives into a convoy of foreign forces in Afghanistan's restive southern province of Kandahar, causing casualties, officials said.

Herat - Shiites prepared to take to the streets of Afghanistan's Herat Wednesday following a deadly mosque attack as anger grew over authorities' failure to prevent the latest assault on the minority community.

Herat - A suicide bomber and a gunman killed at least 29 people and wounded 63 at a packed Shiite mosque in Afghanistan's main western city of Herat Tuesday, the latest attack to highlight the country's deteriorating security situation.

Kabul - Two people died in an attack on the Iraqi embassy in Kabul claimed by the Islamic State group, Afghan officials said, with analysts describing the attack as revenge for the group's defeat in Iraq.

Kabul - A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Iraqi embassy in Kabul Monday and militants breached the compound, Afghan officials said, in a complex hours-long attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

Kabul - The Islamic State group claimed it had attacked the Iraqi embassy in Kabul Monday, as a series of explosions and the sound of gunfire shook the Afghan capital in a continuing assault.