Taliban kills 22 in mountain ambush

Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan have killed at least 22 security force members in an ambush in Sar-e-Pol province north of Kabul, officials say.

The Taliban attacked from the mountains as the convoy was travelling through Laghman valley, officials say, and at least 22 insurgents were also killed.

The Sar-e-Pol provincial governor said that a number of security force vehicles were destroyed.

Earlier a civilian was killed in a suicide bomb attack in Kabul.

Villagers also accused Nato of killing seven civilians, including a nine-year-old child, in an air strike in eastern Paktia province.

They were the first people reported killed in air strikes since the new government was installed at the end of September.

However, Nato said Sunday’s strike had killed “eight armed enemy combatants.”

The issue of Nato air strikes was the most contentious of the many disputes that former President Hamid Karzai had with the international community, reports the BBC’s David Loyn in Kabul.

The violence comes ahead of the withdrawal of most foreign troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year, with Afghan security forces increasingly taking over from Nato-led forces in the fight against the militants.