Afghanistan's interior minister Wednesday survived an attack on his convoy, while clashes killed several civilians and Taliban militants around the country, the interior ministry said. Interior Minister Zarar Ahmad Moqbel's armoured convoy was shot at about 50 kilometres (30 miles) outside of the relatively secure capital Kabul, his spokesman said, adding they had only learned of the incident afterwards. "We received reports there was some shooting from the mountain on one or two vehicles," spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP. Police were investigating if the attack had been aimed at the minister, he said.
Bashary, who was travelling with the convoy, said even the minister did not realise that firing took place and no one was hurt in the attack in which Afghan media reports said rocket- and gun-fire were used to ambush the delegation.
Meanwhile there were new fears for the fate of a US aid worker and her Afghan driver kidnapped in the southern city of Kandahar a month ago as their employer said it had unconfirmed information they had been killed.
In the eastern province of Khost, a bomb blamed on Taliban fighters blew up a civilian pick-up truck, wounding a dozen people -- including women and children, a district police chief said.
One of the wounded died in hospital and six others were in a critical condition, Yaqoobi district chief Lutfullah Babakarkhail told AFP. "This is the work of Taliban," he said.
A similar remote-controlled bomb in the same area killed five policemen -- all from the same family -- and a young boy on Tuesday.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is helping Afghan troops confront the Taliban, meanwhile confirmed that two of its soldiers were killed in another bombing in the adjacent province of Paktika Tuesday.
The Polish military announced late Tuesday that two of its soldiers were killed in the blast and a third wounded.
ISAF also said Wednesday that eight Taliban fighters were killed in operations over the past three days in the southern province of Helmand.
The force, which includes soldiers from around 40 countries, rejected claims that it had killed civilians in the operation around the Kajaki Dam -- a vital water and power source.
However rocket fired by insurgents in the area had left five civilians dead on Monday, the separate US-led coalition said.
The Australian military reported separately that its soldiers in the southern province of Uruzgan had in the past days repelled a number of Taliban attacks on a project to build a base for Afghan soldiers.
And the Afghan army said two of its soldiers were killed in a clash with rebels on Tuesday in Kandahar province.
The Taliban were in government between 1996 and 2001, when they were removed for not handing over their allies in the Al-Qaeda network after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
Last year was the deadliest of the insurgency, with around 6,000 people killed, and there are fears this year will shape up to be just as bad.
NATO civilian spokesman Mark Laity told reporters in Kabul however that he was confident of long-term success. "As long as we stay in the right direction we will win," he said.
International commitment "is enduring, it's not today, it's not for tomorrow it's enduring, it's to accomplish the mission which we came here to do in alliance with the government and the people of Afghanistan," he said.
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Militants who carried out this week's suicide bomb attack on the Indian embassy in the Afghan capital received their training at camps in Pakistan, Reuters quoted Afghanistan's Interior Minister Zarar Ahmad Moqbel as saying on Wednesday. "Some nations are keen to derail the process of stabilisation in Afghanistan. The training centre for the terrorists who carried out the latest act of violence in Kabul at the Indian embassy is in Pakistan," he said. Pakistan strongly condemned Monday's attack and denied any involvement. 
KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced a limited cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday that included the appointment of an adviser on foreign affairs,