Two NATO soldiers were killed Wednesday in a blast triggered by a homemade bomb in southern Afghanistan, where two Afghan mine clearers also died in a similar attack, officials said.
Also in the south, Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in the Andar district of Ghazni province Wednesday, killing three police constables and injuring another two, said Mohammad Nabi Patang, the district governor, DPA reported.
Police forces stationed at the checkpoint fought back and killed two attackers, he said.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said two of its soldiers were killed Wednesday in a roadside bombing but did not reveal their nationalities or the exact location of the blast.
The majority of foreign forces deployed in the volatile southern provinces are from the United States, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands.
Wednesday's casualties brought to 132 the number of international soldiers who have died in the Afghan conflict so far this year.
Separately, two Afghan de-miners were killed and two others were injured Tuesday when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in Uruzgan province, the Afghan Interior Ministry said Wednesday.
The deceased were employees of the Mine Detection Centre, a non-governmental organization that has been clearing landmines, most of which were planted during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, for the past two decades.
Taliban-led violence is on the rise in Afghanistan as the weather becomes warmer. Spring and summer are the traditional fighting seasons for the Taliban, which was driven from power in a US-led invasion in late 2001.
An additional 37,000 foreign troops are to be deployed in Afghanistan by this summer, bringing the number of US troops to up to 100,000 and of soldiers from other NATO countries to 45,000. The military escalation is aimed at turning the tide of the eight-year war.
Afghan and NATO military officials have said they plan to conduct pre-emptive operations in southern and eastern Afghanistan in the coming weeks in a bid to gain the upper hand on the battlefield.