London, Aug 2 : A former commander of Britain’s forces in Afghanistan has reportedly said that British Muslims were helping the Taliban in their war against UK soldiers in southern Afghanistan.

Brig. Ed Butler, who spent six months commanding British forces in Afghanistan, also revealed fears that militant Islamic groups in south-east Asia were supporting terrorist plots in the UK.

Brig Butler (46) said he had seen evidence that terror groups based in southern Afghanistan were plotting with Muslim extremists in Britain to carry out terror attacks in the UK. “There is a link between Kandahar and urban conurbations in the UK. This is something the military understands but the British public does not,” said Brig. Butler.

Kabul - Five people, including three Taliban, a police officer and a civilian, were killed in a clash in southern Afghanistan, while Afghan security forces arrested 13 suspected Taliban in the eastern region, officials said on Friday.

A group of Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in Nad Ali district of the volatile Helmand province on Thursday night, Mohammad Hussain Andewal, the provincial police chief, said.

London, Aug. 1 : Over a hundred aid agencies have claimed that Afghanistan could be heading back to Taliban rule, given the unprecedented numbers of civilian casualties and terror attacks in areas that were once thought safe.

"There has been a surge in the number of civilian casualties caused by all sides, a spread of insecurity to previously stable areas, and increasing attacks on aid agencies and their staff," The Independent quoted a statement from their umbrella organisation ACBAR, as saying.

ACBAR represents 64 international aid groups with projects inside the warring country, including Oxfam, Mercy Corps and Save the Children, as well as 36 Afghan charities.

Washington, Aug 1: American officials have reportedly said that an increasing number of Pakistani militants, mostly hardened by years of combat against Indian forces in Kashmir, were now intruding into Afghanistan to join the intensifying insurgency against US and NATO forces.

According to them, these fighters also include those from outside the Taliban strongholds in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

“When we’re talking about foreign fighters in Afghanistan, they’re primarily Pakistanis. The chief concern for US officials is Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud,” the Daily Times quoted one official as saying.

Washington, Aug 1 : On the basis of intercepted communication between Pakistan intelligence agency ISI and militants, the US has reportedly drawn a conclusion that Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI was behind the July 7 suicide attack on Indian embassy in Kabul which claimed more than 50 lives, including four Indian staffers.

US intelligence sleuths said the communication was intercepted before the Indian embassy bombing, but the intercepts were not detailed enough to warn of any specific attack. They also said that CIA Deputy Director Stephen R. Kappes had been ordered to rush to Islamabad even before the attack.

Islamabad  - Pakistan on Thursday denounced a bomb explosion that it said injured a policeman outside its consulate in the western Afghan province of Herat and blasted the government of President Hamid Karzai for failing to ensure security of Pakistani diplomats.

"The government of Pakistan holds the government of Afghanistan responsible for the safety and security of its personnel in its embassy in Kabul and consulates in Herat, Kandhar, Jalalabad and Mazar-e-Sharif," said a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

We hope that the Afghan government will take its responsibility seriously, it said further.