Kabul

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A minibus carrying civilians in the western province of Herat hit a roadside bomb Tuesday, triggering an explosion that killed 16 civilians, including children and women, provincial officials said.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- An assassin with a bomb hidden in his turban on Tuesday killed former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, the chairman of the government's peace council, in the latest in a slew of high-profile attacks and a major blow to U.S.-backed efforts to draw Taliban-led insurgents into peace talks.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The U.S.-led coalition says that the 30 U.S. troops and seven Afghan soldiers who died in a weekend helicopter crash in eastern Afghanistan were on a mission targeting a Taliban leader.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A suicide bomber struck a Kandahar mosque where a memorial service was being held Thursday for the assassinated half-brother of President Hamid Karzai. The attack killed at least four people and could mark the start of a violent power struggle in the wake of Ahmed Wali Karzai's death.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- At least one suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Western-style hotel in Kabul late Tuesday night and Afghan police who rushed to the scene fought other assailants with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Tracer rounds went up over the blacked out Inter-Continental hotel, which is frequented by Afghan political leaders and foreign visitors. Associated Press reporters at the scene heard bursts of gunfire and saw shooting from the roof of the five-story building. Police ordered bystanders to lie on the ground for safety.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- An angry new dispute over civilian casualties erupted Wednesday, with Afghan officials asserting that nine children gathering firewood on a mountainside were killed by an American bombardment in a troubled eastern province. A tenth child was reported wounded.

President Hamid Karzai, on an official visit to London, condemned the episode "in the strongest terms possible," calling it a "ruthless attack" and questioning whether Western war aims could be achieved if noncombatants continue to die.

Western military officials said in a statement that they were investigating Tuesday's incident, which began when an outpost in the Dara-i-Pech district of Kunar province was hit by rocket fire, presumably from insurgents, which injured a local contractor. The base's defenders responded with "indirect and aerial fire," the statement said. Indirect fire usually describes the use of field artillery.

Kunar province last month was the scene of another confrontation between the Karzai government and the NATO force over civilian casualties. The Western military