WAR DEVELOPMENTS

Afghanistan

> Taliban militants seized a civilian bus on a main road in volatile southern Afghanistan and executed at least two dozen passengers, beheading some of them, officials said Sunday. The attack took place Thursday in Kandahar province, the home base of the militant Islamic movement before it was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in late 2001. Many of those aboard the bus were women and children.

> U.S.-led troops killed three militants in weekend clashes in Helmand province, military and Afghan authorities said.

> The United States has sounded out Japan on the possibility of dispatching transport helicopters to aid reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, officials said.

Pakistan

Pakistani forces killed at least 30 militants near the Afghan border.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher met Sunday with North West Frontier Province Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti. The U.S. Embassy would not comment on what was discussed.

Iraq

> Two bombs exploded Sunday near Iraqi police in a Shiite-dominated southeast Baghdad neighborhood, killing two people and wounding 17, police and hospital officials said.

> Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel hideouts inside Iraqi territory in the north, according to an Iraqi Kurdish official.

> A U.S. animal rescue group flew into Baghdad on Sunday and picked up an Iraqi puppy named Ratchet, which was adopted by Army Spc. Gwen Beberg, 28, of Minneapolis in a case that highlighted military rules barring troops from caring for pets while in Iraq. Ratchet is due in Minnesota later this week. It was the third try by Operation Baghdad Pups, a program run by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International, to get Ratchet out of the country. Beberg said she couldn’t have made it through her 13-month deployment without the affectionate mutt.