NATO's secretary-general says there are no plans for NATO troops to pull out of Afghanistan. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is discussing regional security with leaders of Pakistan, which says it has increased troops along its border to help curb terrorist activity in neighboring Afghanistan.

A remote-control explosive hit an Afghan National Army bus in Kabul today, killing the driver and wounding 14 people, including soldiers and civilians. Taliban militants have claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Afghans have protested for a fourth day today over the killing of civilians by U.S.-led coalition forces hunting Taliban fighters. More than five years after the U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban and Al-Qaeda from Afghanistan, public anger over the death of noncombatants has focused on the UN-backed Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai, as well as NATO and other foreign troops.

As U.S.-led coalition troops report scores of Taliban were killed in Herat Province, local Afghans in Herat's Shindand district are accusing U.S. forces of having killed civilians. Some 130 suspected militants were reported killed by U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces over the past few days in Afghanistan.

Provincial officials in Afghanistan say Taliban fighters captured a district government building in the southeastern Ghazni Province overnight. Ghazni's deputy governor, Mohammad Kazim Allahyer, said the district's top administrator, the police chief, and three police officers were killed.

Roadside bombs in Afghanistan today killed at least eight Afghan security officials -- the latest in a series of explosions blamed on Taliban fighters, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reported.

U.S. officials in Afghanistan say they have uncovered a new Taleban campaign to discredit the national police force and terrorize local Afghan communities. From Islamabad, VOA's Benjamin Sand reports that insurgents have been stockpiling counterfeit police uniforms and establishing illegal checkpoints in western Afghanistan.

A human rights group says civilian deaths have increased dramatically in Afghanistan, making 2006 the deadliest year for Afghan civilians since 2001.

NATO says one of its soldiers was killed during a firefight with Taleban militants in southern Afghanistan Friday. The alliance says two other soldiers were wounded and are being treated in a military hospital. It did not identify the nationalities of the troops.

NATO says two of its soldiers were killed and another wounded in separate attacks Thursday in eastern Afghanistan. In a statement, NATO said soldiers were struck by two roadside bombs. It said the blasts occurred within 30 minutes of one another.

Afghan police say a suicide car bomber targeted a NATO convoy in the southern city of Kandahar, wounding eight civilians but causing no deaths except for the bomber. Officials say no NATO soldiers were hurt in Wednesday's blast in the western part of Kandahar.

French and Afghan officials say two French aid workers and three Afghan members of their staff are missing in Afghanistan. A man claiming to be a Taleban spokesman said the group had kidnapped the five. The claim has not been verified.