Kabul:
Seven NATO service members were killed in a spate of attacks in Afghanistan, including four in roadside bombings, bringing the alliance's troop losses over the past two days to 13, officials said.
It has been the deadliest year for international forces in the nine-year Afghan conflict. Troop numbers have been ramped up to turn the screws on insurgents and casualties have mounted.
The escalating toll has shaken the commitment of many NATO countries, with calls growing to start drawing down troops quickly.
A homemade bomb in western Afghanistan killed three service members, an alliance statement said without giving the nationalities of the dead or the specific location of the attack.
American, Italian, Spanish and Lithuanian forces are deployed in the country's west.
NATO later announced another three troops died in the south two in an insurgent attack and another in a blast.
The alliance said a service member also died in a militant attack in the east. Poland's Defense Ministry said one of its soldiers was killed and another wounded when a patrol was attacked by mortar fire in eastern Ghazni province.
On Wednesday, insurgents killed six NATO troops, including four who died in a single bomb blast in the south.
At least 41 NATO service members have been killed so far this month, and more than 2,000 have died since the 2001 US-led invasion. Roadside bombs have become the weapon of choice for militants in countering ramped up NATO-Afghan operations.
NATO said on Thursday, two insurgent leaders were killed in a raid in Ghazni. Afghan and NATO forces took heavy small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire as they moved in on a compound in Rashidan district, an alliance statement said.
Troops returned fire, killing Mohammad Ali and Mowlana Fatih Sahib, described by NATO as senior Taliban leaders. Several other insurgents were killed, it said.
The Taliban have accused NATO of inventing Taliban leaders and alleging they were killed or captured in a propaganda campaign to demoralise the insurgents.
Also, the Taliban fighters ambushed a supply convoy in southern Kandahar city, wounding three civilian drivers in a hail of automatic weapon fire. The militants set three trucks ablaze before fleeing, driver Gul Janan said from his hospital bed.