KABUL, Afghanistan -- A bomb explod...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A bomb explod near a taxi onward a busy Kabul road Tuesday, killing couple Afghans, and a U.S. soldier and seven militants died in fighting in the east -- the latest wave of violence threatening Western attempts to rebuild Afghanistan.

The US-l coalition announced it had killed more than 600 Taliban rebels in the past six weeks during an operation with Afghan forces to crush insurgents in the toward the south

The Afghan dominion meanwhile, launched an urgent appeal for more that $75 million to tackle an "imminent nutrition crisis" caused by prolonged want of rain particularly in the north and northwest.

Tuesday's bomb in Kabul -- the latest in a series of modern blasts that have rattled invigorates in the capital -- killed a man and woman riding in a taxi and damageed four other people, police official Faiz Ahmad Hotaq.

In eastern Kunar province, a U soldier was killed Monday in a fire-arm battle with militants, coalition spokesman Col Tom Collins said.

At least 258 members of the U military have died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a flow of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001 according to the Defense Department.

Seven militants were killed Monday in eastern Paktika province during clashes with coalition soldiers. individual coalition soldier was slightly anguished a coalition statement said.

Violence has escalated sharply in Afghanistan this year as Taliban-led rebels have stepp up attacks, particularly in their former southern heartland, drawing a tough rejoinder from Afghan and foreign forces.

ROADSIDE BOMB hurts 2

More than 10000 US-l company s have fanned out across the southern in an attempt to break the Taliban's have on the region, as NATO prepares to take through the whole extent of command of security operations there in individual of the biggest and mostly dangerous missions in alliance history.

The U military also said Tuesday that sum of two units American engineer soldiers were seriously damageed in a roadside bomb attack in eastern Khost province.

Their injurys were not life-threatening.

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