Italian journalist. 15 April: A suicide bomber struck a US-private security firm, killing four Afghans working for the company. 16 April: A suicide bomber ran onto a police training field and detonated his explosive device, killed 10 police officers and wounded dozens of others. The attack took place in the relatively quiet city of Kunduz. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. 20 April: Separate explosions in Southern Afghanistan leave two NATO soldiers dead. 22 April: A suicide bomber blew himself up in an eastern city of Afghanistan, killing six. A roadside bomb also hit an Afghan intelligence service vehicle, killing all four who were inside. 30 April: Hundreds of Afghans took to the streets in western Afghanistan, accusing US soldiers of killing scores of civilians in fighting which the coalition said killed 136 Taliban in a three-week operation. May: 13 May: Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban's top military commander in Afghanistan, was killed in fighting in the south. 23 May: The Taliban's newly named top field commander, Mullah Bakht Mohammed, brother and replacement of deceased field commander Mullah Dadullah, made his first public statement, saying the Taliban will "pursue holy war until the occupying countries leave." July: 19 July: The South Korean hostage crisis involved the hostage taking by the Taliban of twenty-three South Korean Christian aid workers in Ghazni Province. The Taliban killed two hostages later that month. The crisis ended on 30 August with the release of the remaining hostages as part of a deal with South Korean government diplomats. August: 31 August: A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle after ramming three military vehicles at the military gate of Kabul International Airport. Two Afghan soldiers were killed and ten people were injured. September: 29 September: In an effort to reach a compromise with the Taliban leaders, Karzai suggested quid quo pro by allowing militants to have a place in government if they stopped fighting. Taliban leaders replied by saying there would be no compromise unless intervening forces such as NATO and the US left. November: 2 November: Mawlawi Abdul Manan, an important Taliban figure, was killed by Afghan Security forces. His death was confirmed by the Taliban. 2008 The US warned that in 2008 the Taliban has "coalesced into a resilient insurgency", and would "maintain or even increase the scope and pace of its terrorist attacks". Attacks by Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan increased by 40% when