There are no signs of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda insurgency abating along the Afghan-Pakistani border. If anything, the run-up to Pakistan's parliamentary vote has seen rising violence in the tribal regions, with scores killed in attacks in the last week alone.

There has been no shortage of dire predictions recently of the potentially disastrous consequences if NATO does not pull together to put more troops and equipment on the ground in Afghanistan.

A senior U.S. official is taking issue with two independent reports that portray a dire political and security situation in Afghanistan. Appearing before a Senate panel Thursday, the State Department official sought to counter the reports' assessments that Afghanistan risks becoming a failed state, as VOA's Deborah Tate reports from Capitol Hill.

Afghan officials say NATO warplanes mistakenly killed 14 Afghan construction workers while hunting for Taliban militants in the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan.

The U.S. military says Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces have killed dozens of Taliban fighters in southern Uruzgan province.

The U.S. military in Afghanistan says 15 militants along with an Afghan woman and two children were killed during a battle with insurgents in the south.

Fifty nine children were killed and 96 others were wounded by an awful suicide attack in northern Afghanistan earlier this week, the Education Ministry said Friday.

At least 64 people, including 5 members of Parliament, were killed by two bomb blasts in north Afghanistan – in the deadliest attack since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, officials said.

Local Afghan officials say Taliban insurgents have overrun a second district in western Farah province.

Thirty four aid workers were killed in Afghanistan this year. The U.N. accused militants and criminals of these misdeeds. It also called on armed groups to stop attacks on humanitarian convoys so food can reach millions of poor Afghans.

UNICEF said Thursday that Afghan children are at greater danger than ever since 2002 because of continued fighting between Taliban militants and the U.S.-led coalition.