KABUL, Aug 18: Taliban freed a Lebanese hostage and two United States soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on Thursday. Both incidents involved reconstruction projects. The new US ambassador to Kabul pledged that the militants would not be allowed to disrupt next month’s parliamentary elections.

The Taliban had threatened to kill hostage Safieddine Mohammad Rida, who had been kidnapped on Sunday if his employers did not pull out of Afghanistan. The US military said two soldiers were killed and two wounded when a bomb hit their vehicle during a patrol of a road-building project north of Kandahar.—APP