KABUL: A 13-year-old Afghan forced by militants to plant a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan was killed when it exploded, the interior ministry said yesterday.
He was placing the improvised explosive device on a road in the Zahri district of southern Kandahar province, where Taliban influence is concentrated.
In other operations, Afghan and foreign troops killed 23 Taliban militants a day after President Hamid Karzai pledged to take responsibility for security in his new five-year term.
Eleven died in Zahri district in Kandahar and eight in the Sanzari area of the district. In eastern Kunar province, four militants were killed when Nato soldiers returned fire. There were no casualties among the troops.
In Kabul, a rocket attack near the luxury Serena Hotel injured four people, including two Afghan security personnel and two women. There was no damage to the hotel, owned by the Aga Khan.
It is Kabul's only five-star hotel and has been heavily-fortified following attacks three weeks ago, forcing more than 100 people to rush into an underground bunker.
In January 2008, Taliban gunmen stormed the hotel, which is near the presidential palace, killing six people including a Norwegian journalist.
Meanwhile, 80 Taliban militants laid down their weapons at the police headquarters in the eastern city of Herat, and joined the police force, accepting a government amnesty aimed at ending the insurgency.
"Negotiations have been going on with their commander Mula Solaiman as we have been trying to absorb him into the government," an official said.
The former border guard commander changed sides a number of times.
So far 8,340 Taliban have accepted the amnesty.
Currently only Kabul is controlled and secured by Afghans, while more than 100,000 troops from the US and Nato countries are fighting the Taliban in an intensifying insurgency.
The independent website eicasualties.org puts the death toll for foreign troops so far this year at 477, compared to 295 for all of 2008.
Nato yesterday took command of the training of the Afghan army and police to consolidate efforts on building an effective security force, a vital precondition for the withdrawal of foreign troops.
The existing US training mission, CSTC-A, until now responsible for most of the training, will merge with the new Nato Training Mission-Afghanistan, under a single command.
Deputy Commander of the new Nato mission Major General Michael Ward hoped the move would encourage more Nato training personnel to be sent to Afghanistan, helping to speed the expansion of local forces.
