AFGHANISTAN At a glance

The latest developments in Afghanistan:

A suicide car bomber attacked an American military convoy on the road to Kabul’s airport Saturday, killing a U.S. soldier and four Afghans and sending flames shooting into the sky, officials said. The bombing threw several vehicles on their side. Four Afghans were killed and 12 wounded, the Health Ministry said.

Abdul Manan Farahi, Kabul’s counterterrorism chief, said Kabul police prevented 156 terror attacks, including 18 suicide bombings, in the past six months. He said one man from Morocco, one from Saudi Arabia and several from Pakistan were among the 18 would-be suicide attackers arrested.

In the south, in Uruzgan province, Taliban fighters attacked an Afghan security company guarding a road construction project, killing five of the security guards, said Kandahar provincial police chief Sayed Agha Saqib. Ten Afghan guards were missing, he said.

Some 40 to 50 fighters in Ghazni province laid down their arms and joined the government’s reconciliation process, said Kazim Alayar, deputy governor. The fighters are from Andar district, a notorious Taliban stronghold where militants held some of the 23 South Korean hostages kidnapped in July. More than 4,500 fighters have joined the government through the reconciliation process.

Japan’s Defense Ministry denied a media report Saturday that it planned to withdraw its naval mission to support U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan on Nov. 1, saying the government expected parliament to approve an extension before then.

Source: Associated Press