AMIR SHAH, KABUL

Taliban militants wearing Afghan army uniforms attacked a remote Nato base in eastern Afghanistan yesterday, leaving two Afghan soldiers dead and 11 alliance soldiers wounded.

The militants approached the forward operating base in the mountainous Nuristan province before launching the attack. Nato did not identify the nationality of the wounded soldiers, but most troops in the east are American.

"This is another example of the Taliban extremists ignoring international law of armed conflict," said Lieutenant Colonel Claudia Foss, referring to the militants' use of Afghan army uniforms to conduct the attack.

Elsewhere, a suicide bomber attacked a provincial governor, killing four people and wounding eight others.

Khost governor Arsallah Jamal escaped unharmed when his six-vehicle convoy was attacked.

Hours earlier, gunmen in southern Afghanistan abducted the mayor of Gereshk, a town in the opium-growing province of Helmand.

Dur Ali Shah was travelling with two of his sons and another man to the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah on a treacherous stretch of road. Only the mayor was taken. Authorities launched a search and rescue operation.

Meanwhile, a German aid worker freed after being kidnapped in Afghanistan returned to her home country yesterday.

Christina Meier, 31, landed at the military section of Cologne Airport.

Meier, who worked for Christian aid group Ora International, was freed in a police operation early on Monday after being held captive for a day-and-a-half. Her abduction was the first of a foreigner in the capital, Kabul, since 2005.-AP