Ambush kills two US soldiers in Afghanistan

A bomb killed two US troops and wounded a third in a military convoy near the Afghan-Pakistan border, while fighting between Afghan forces and Taliban rebels left three insurgents dead.

A bomb killed two US troops and wounded a third in a military convoy near the Afghan-Pakistan border, while fighting between Afghan forces and Taliban rebels left three insurgents dead.

An Afghan interpreter was also wounded in the blast, which hit an American armoured vehicle, the US military said yesterday. The deaths brought to 147 the number of US troops killed in and around Afghanistan since Operation Enduring Freedom began in 2001.

Elsewhere, Afghan army forces captured a suspected bomb maker and former Taliban member in the west of the country, while three suspected rebels died, two in an hour-long battle in Zabul province.

After a winter lull, supporters of the ousted Taliban regime and other militants opposed to Western-backed President Hamid Karzai have stepped up their insurgency with a series of bombings and other attacks.