London, July 25: British and American commanders in war-ravaged Afghanistan have interestingly claimed that the Taliban and its factions could be using NATO troops and weaponry to eliminate rivals.

According to The Independent, the commanders believe that over a period of 18 months, the assassinations or killing of key insurgent leaders like Mullah Dadullah, Abdul Rasaq and three of his senior lieutenants -- Mullah Sheikh, Bishmullah Khan and Mullah Sadiqullah, are examples of the effectiveness of the Taliban policy of "decapitating" the enemy leadership.

Lahore, July 25 : The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has reportedly urged the United Nations to investigate the alleged detention of a Pakistani national Dr Afia Sadeeqi at a US military base in Afghanistan for the past five years.

The human rights body said that it feared that Sadeeqi, who went missing along with her children five years ago from Karachi, was being detained at a US prison in Bagram.

Accused of being a member of Al Qaeda and masterminding terrorist attacks in the US, Dr Sadeeqi is wanted by several US investigation agencies. Both Pakistani and US intelligence agencies had confirmed her arrest soon after her disappearance, but since then, the government has been denying any knowledge of her whereabouts, reported the Daily Times.

New Delhi, July 24 : Indian and the United States army will undertake joint manoeuvres on counter-terrorism in Mizoram from next month.

Operation Vajraprahar will be the fourth round of joint exercises between the special forces of the two countries.

Earlier, Indian and American forces have held similar complex battle manoeuvres in Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir and in the Alaskan mountains in the US.

Moscow - Russia is preparing to counter the strategic threat posed if the US sites a missile defence base in eastern Europe with military measures including specially modifying its ballistic missiles, a Russian military expert said Thursday.

"Russia's military responses to the deployment of a US missile defence system in Europe may include improving the Russian strategic Topol-M missiles with hypersonic manoeuvering warheads and a large number of jamming stations that would reduce the effectiveness of missile defence elements tenfold," said Viktor Yesin, a former chief of General Staff of the Russian Strategic Missile Troops.

Baghdad - Three key terror suspects allegedly affiliated to the al-Qaeda in Iraq group have turned themselves in to Iraqi and coalition forces, the US military said Thursday.

A leader of the Islamic State in Iraq, also known as al-Qaeda in Iraq, in the western Sinjar area surrendered to Iraqi troops on July 5, the US military said in a statement.

The suspect was allegedly involved in facilitating the work of foreign fighters in Iraq and leading a terrorist cell specialized in making explosive devices.

Moscow  - Russia said Thursday it opposes imposing deadlines on Tehran to force compliance with international efforts to halt its nuclear programme.

"We are of the view that there should be no artificial timeline, such as extreme deadlines of 'tomorrow or never,' just as there should be no endless dragging out of the process," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying on the sidelines of regional forum in Singapore.