The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Kabul

Two NATO soldiers were killed Saturday in a Taliban suicide car bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan, while authorities said more than 100 rebels were slain in military operations in the southwest.

Four more International Security Assistance Force soldiers and five civilians were wounded in the blast in Jalalabad, a thriving city 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the Pakistan border, the alliance and Afghan government said.

The 40-nation ISAF would not release the nationalities of its casualties, according to policy. Most foreign troops in eastern Afghanistan are US nationals. The new deaths bring to 67 the number of international soldiers who have died in Afghanistan this year, most of them in hostile action.

The insurgent Taliban-an Al-Qaeda-linked outfit waging a deadly campaign against the pro-democratic government-claimed responsibility for the blast, similar to scores of others carried out by the group.

An AFP reporter said a US Humvee was destroyed in the attack. "It's laying upside down in the middle of the road," he said. Two other ISAF soldiers were wounded in a roadside bombing on Saturday in Paktia province, a troubled region in the country's east bordering Pakistan, ISAF spokesman Carlos Branco said.

The interior ministry said meanwhile that Afghan security forces backed by foreign military allies killed more than 100 rebels to retake the remote district of Bakwa in the southwestern province of Farah.

The rebels had captured the district eight months ago. Authorities retook control on Friday, ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP.

"During two days of operations more than 100 enemies of peace and stability were killed," he said, adding that security forces were still chasing rebels in the district.

The Taliban have taken control of remote towns and districts but have been easily pushed back by Afghan and foreign security forces.

Farah, which borders Iran, has seen some of the bloodiest violence in a two-year insurgency, which has mainly taken place in the country's south and east.

About 18 other Taliban-linked militants were killed in other operations by Afghan and foreign troops in southern Kandahar province, a police commander said.

"In the past three days we've killed 16 Taliban including two commanders in Zhari and Panjwayi district. They were killed in an operation launched to clear the area of the enemy," said the Kandahar police chief, Sayed Agha Saqeb.

Two other rebels were killed in a gunfight with police elsewhere in Kandahar, he told AFP.