The Afghan parliament Saturday voted to dismiss two top security ministers at a critical time amid tensions with Pakistan and increasing insurgent attacks as NATO prepares to withdraw its troops.

The move obliges President Hamid Karzai to replace Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, who has strong support among Afghanistan's Western allies, and Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi.

Three NATO soldiers were killed in separate attacks in eastern Afghanistan at the weekend, the International Security Assistance Force said.

Two died in a roadside bomb explosion early Sunday and another was killed in an insurgent attack Saturday, ISAF said, without giving further details or naming the nationalities of the dead.

Eight Afghan civilians were killed in a Taliban bombing in northern Afghanistan on Thursday and two NATO soldiers were killed in similar bombs elsewhere in the troubled country, officials said.

The civilians died in northern Faryab province when their mini-van struck a home-made bomb of the kind widely used by Taliban insurgents in attacks aimed at military forces.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday admitted his Western-backed administration was unable to deliver justice to the people, despite decade-long international efforts to rebuild the war-torn nation.

Led by the United States, the international community has pumped billions of dollars into Afghanistan since the Taliban's Islamist regime was toppled in a 2001 invasion, and NATO has 130,000 troops defending Karzai's government.

A manhunt was under way Monday for Taliban militants who publicly executed a woman accused of adultery, Afghan authorities said, as outrage mounted after a video of the cold-blooded killing surfaced.

The commander of NATO's 130,000 troops in Afghanistan, General John Allen, offered to help local security forces track and capture the men involved in what he called "an atrocity of unspeakable cruelty".

Roadside bombs killed 18 civilians travelling in three vehicles in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province close to the Pakistan border Sunday, police said.

"The first blast hit a minivan with around 20 people on board," provincial police chief General Abdul Raziq told AFP.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Tokyo Saturday ahead of a major development conference for Afghanistan where donors are expected to pledge billions of dollars in support.

Clinton touched down in the Japanese capital after a brief visit to Kabul where she announced that the United States had designated Afghanistan as a major non-NATO ally, providing a long-term framework for defense cooperation.

The United States has designated Afghanistan a major non-NATO ally, giving the war-torn country special privileges as the U.S. prepares to pull its troops out in 2014, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday.

Clinton announced the designation, which provides a long-term framework for security and defense cooperation, during a visit to Kabul where she held talks with President Hamid Karzai.

The French military officially handed over control of the key Afghan province of Kapisa to local forces on Wednesday.

The transfer is an important stage in France's withdrawal from the war-torn country, which new President Francois Hollande has accelerated by ordering the return of troops by the end of 2012, a year earlier than previously planned.

Insurgent attacks on Afghan security forces have increased in recent months, President Hamid Karzai said Thursday, a day after a Taliban suicide bomber struck a convoy, killing 21 people.

Taliban-led insurgents target Afghan forces on a daily basis as the fledgling police and army prepare to take responsibility for national security after NATO combat troops leave at the end of 2014.