Afghan and Nato-led forces killed at least 30 insurgents in an air and ground assault in eastern Afghanistan today, Nato forces said in a statement.
The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said more than 250 Afghan security forces and coalition troops battled insurgents in Laghman province, southeast of the capital Kabul, after coming under small-arms fire.
There were no immediate reports of coalition or civilian casualties in the assault, which ISAF said was continuing.
Rising violence and casualties are of deep concern in Washington, where US President Barack Obama is due to conduct a strategy review of the increasingly unpopular war in December.
Afghanistan is under renewed scrutiny after last weekend's parliamentary election was hit by violence and widespread claims of fraud, the second flawed poll in 13 months following a presidential election.
Two ISAF service members were killed by a homemade bomb in eastern Afghanistan yesterday, ISAF said in a separate statement.
At least five insurgents were killed in a gunbattle that erupted after suicide bombers attacked a Nato-run base in eastern Paktia province.
In a separate incident, a child was killed and 27 civilians were wounded in another suicide attack on an ISAF convoy in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Reuters