KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct 10, (AP): Roadside bombs killed seven people including two NATO troops in war-torn Afghanistan Sunday, as a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle near a military convoy, killing a child and wounding two other people. The Afghan government, meanwhile, named former President Burhanuddin Rabbani as the chief of a new peace council tasked with talking to insurgent groups.
Daily violence continues unabated throughout much of Afghanistan. The focus of the US-led war — which entered its 10th year last week — has been on the south, but coalition troops are increasingly fighting resilient militants in the east, west and north.

Five members of a family died in a roadside bombing in eastern Paktia province. Two NATO service members were killed in a blast on a highway in southern Afghanistan, NATO said.
The suicide car bombing occurred in eastern Khost province’s Mandozai district, killing a child bystander while only slightly damaging a NATO vehicle. “The killing and wounding of innocent children is reprehensible,” said US Army Col. Rafael Torres in statement.
NATO said Sunday intelligence sources tracked a Taleban commander — identified as Mullah Jamaluddin — as he traveled in western Badghis province’s Murghab district Saturday. A gunbattle erupted and the Taleban leader and two militants were killed.

“Jamaluddin was a very important person who received support from much of the local community,” provincial spokesman Sharaf Uddin Majidi told The Associated Press. “His death will certainly lead to increased peace and stability.”
Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced Sunday the recently formed peace council had selected Rabbani as its chairman. Karzai praised their choice, saying Rabbani’s leadership would be “good for Afghanistan.”
Rabbani was one of a group of mujahedeen leaders who fought the Soviets in the 1980s. He was Afghanistan’s president between 1992 and 1996, when he was ousted by the Taleban.
The 70-member panel, which formally began work on Thursday, was created by Karzai to have a structure in place to guide talks with the Taleban and other insurgent groups.

“How much longer can we wait for foreigners to establish security for us? How much longer can we witness explosions in our mosques and see our leaders killed?” Rabbani said as he accepted the position. “Peace will come when we cooperate.”
Publicly, the Taleban have said they won’t negotiate until foreign troops leave the country, yet many Taleban leaders have reached out directly or indirectly to the highest levels of the Afghan government. There have been no formal negotiations yet between the Afghan government and the Taleban, only some contacts and signals from each side, according to Karzai’s spokesman, Waheed Omar.
Meanwhile, another Taleban leader, Ajmal Agha Jan, also died Saturday in southern Helmand province’s Marjah district after he pulled a pistol on a joint force that raided his compound, NATO said.
Six senior Taleban were killed in operations in western Badghis and neighboring Faryab province over the past two weeks, NATO said.