President Karzai walked through a metal detector at the new termina

Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai has inaugurated a new terminal at Kabul airport as part of efforts to rebuild the country after decades of conflict.

Mr Karzai called on passengers and staff to look after the terminal, which cost $35m (£22m), funded by Japan.

Officials say it can handle a million travellers a year, from domestic and international flights.

The old terminal at Kabul airport had become a symbol of the decline in the country’s infrastructure.

“I hope, now this facility has been handed over to us, that our sisters and brothers, those in charge of the airport, the passengers passing through, the state officials and MPs using it, will look after it and they should not allow, God forbid, that we come here after a year and find its windows, doors and tiles broken,” Mr Karzai said.

Afghan officials are describing it as another step towards progress after the fall of the Taleban.

Former glory

The increasing number of international travellers flying into Kabul over recent years, including aid workers, will be looking forward to using it, after suffering years of cramped, basic and outdated facilities, says BBC Afghan analyst Pam O’Toole.

The old airport was in some ways a barometer of Afghanistan’s fortunes over the decades.

When it was originally built, the old terminal was regarded as ultra modern, a fashionable place to visit, and many Afghans have fond memories from the 1960s of going there to eat and socialise.

After the Soviet invasion in 1979 and the subsequent civil war, the airport complex was increasingly used for military as well as passenger aircraft.

It became a target for rocket attacks, leaving the grounds littered with the wreckage of planes.

By the time the Taleban were ousted, it had been badly battered by decades of war.

The Taleban have kidnapped soldiers and officials

Pakistan has set free three Taleban militants, including an important Taleban commander, who were arrested in July, officials said.

Among the freed militants is Commander Maulvi Rafiuddin, a close associate of militant leader, Baitullah Mehsud.

The release was part of a prisoner swap on Wednesday night in which Taleban released 10 Pakistani soldiers, officials said.

The swap took place in the violence-hit Hangu district in the north west.

The district mayor of Hangu, Khan Afzal, told the BBC that the released soldiers included seven personnel of the army and three personnel of the paramilitary Frontier Corps.

He said the swap was negotiated by a tribal council of elders.

‘Prized catch’

Maulvi Rafiuddin and his three companions were arrested by the police in early July in Doaba area of Hangu district.

Hundreds of Taleban surrounded Doaba police station soon afterwards to secure their release, but the authorities shifted the prisoners to a safer place.

Taleban kidnapped over a dozen officials in retaliation, and beheaded three of them when their demand for Maulvi Rafiuddin’s release was not met.

The incident sparked military action in Doaba region in which at least 13 soldiers and several Taleban militants were killed.

A senior official, Rehman Malik, told reporters in July that Maulvi Rafiuddin was a “prized catch” and the question of his release did not arise.

Police officials in Hangu say nearly 20 kidnapped officials, most of them civilian, are still being held by Baitullah Mehsud’s followers.

Mr Mehsud, who leads an alliance of pro-Taleban groups, is accused of masterminding the killing of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. He denied involvement in the attack.

Damage to civilian life and property is making Pakistan’s leaders uneas

A suspected US missile strike in north-west Pakistan has killed at least 11 people, Pakistani officials say.

The attack by a US drone targeted Taleban militants in the tribal region of North Waziristan, close to the Afghan border, they said.

Local people say the house of fighters loyal to a Taleban commander, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, was hit.

The US has not confirmed the attack. It has carried out many attacks along Pakistan’s border areas recently.

Sovereignty issue

The attack was in a remote village in the area of Razmak. Details are sketchy, but locals say a house of a local tribesman was hit.

The identity of those killed in the attack is not yet clear. Hafiz Gul Bahadur is believed to be responsible for many attacks on US and Nato forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.

He comes from the Ahmedzai Wazir tribe and used to be second in command to Pakistan’s most feared militant, Baitullah Mehsud, the BBC’s Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad reports.

Hafiz Gul Bahadur later broke away from Baitullah Mehsud.

North Waziristan is a haven for Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters who enter Afghanistan to fight US and Nato forces.

There are believed to have been 18 strikes by CIA-operated predator drones in Pakistan’s tribal border areas since August.

The US says it acts only when it has clear intelligence on the whereabouts of a known militant and that its targeting of al-Qaeda leaders is helping prevent terrorist attacks on the west.

But Pakistanis complain that civilians are often killed and that the attacks are a violation of their sovereignty.

Earlier this week Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari warned the new head of US Central Command, Gen David Petreaus, that missile attacks on Pakistani territory were counter-productive.

Mr Zardari said such strikes were detrimental to America’s war on terror.

He said they make it harder for the Pakistani authorities to persuade the Pashtun tribes living along the Afghan frontier to join them in the fight against the extremists.