2 NATO soldiers killed, 3 wounded in eastern Afghan clash

Insurgents ambushed NATO-led forces in eastern Afghanistan, leaving two alliance troops dead and three others wounded, while a coalition airstrike in the south killed 18 suspected militants, officials said Friday.

The eastern clash occurred in the mountainous Korangal Valley in Kunar province late Thursday, after insurgents using rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons ambushed a joint NATO-Afghan foot patrol, a NATO statement said.

"The combined force repelled the insurgent attack with direct and indirect fire and close-air support," the statement said. AK-47 assault rifles, used by insurgents, and the remains of at least one militant were recovered at the site.

"The rough terrain in this mountainous region of Afghanistan and the time of day the engagement occurred made it difficult to confirm additional insurgent casualties," the statement said.

The wounded troops were transported to a military medical facility and were in stable condition.

NATO did not identify the nationalities of the dead and wounded soldiers. Most of the troops in that part of the country are American.

In the south, an airstrike on a group of Taliban fighters on Friday left 18 militants dead in the mountainous area of Daychopan district, in Zabul province, said Fazel Bari, Daychopan's district chief.

The strike follows a U.S.-led coalition and Afghan attack on a gathering of another group of Taliban militants on Wednesday in the same district that killed 10 insurgents.

Authorities recovered the dead bodies of 18 militants killed in the Friday strike, which also included foreigners, Bari said.

U.S.-led coalition and NATO-led troops could not immediately confirm that any airstrikes had taken place in that area.

Casualty figures from remote battles are hard to verify independently.

Afghanistan this year has seen the heaviest fighting since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban. In all, more than 5,200 people have died in insurgency-related violence, most of whom were militants, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.

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Associated Press writer Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.