Two NATO soldiers were killed Thursday in separate attacks in Afghanistan while suspected Taliban militants also gunned down two civilians in the country's south, officials said, DPA reported.
One soldier of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed in a Taliban attack in eastern Afghanistan and another foreign trooper died in a roadside bomb in the south, ISAF said.
The military did not reveal the nationality of the deceased soldiers, nor did it say where exactly in the attacks took place.
Thursday's casualties took the overall number of international troops killed in the Afghan war so far this year to 338. More than 100 NATO soldiers died in June alone, the bloodiest month since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001.
Meanwhile, suspected militants Thursday killed a civilian in the capital of the southern province of Kandahar, the provincial governor's office said.
The militants also killed another civilian in front of his wife and children in Kandahar's Arghandab district, the statement said. The man was driving with his family on Wednesday when the militants stopped their vehicle.
The man, who was "an ordinary farmer," was killed on charges of spying for the Western-backed Afghan government, it said.
Also on Wednesday, a NATO airstrike hit four suspected Taliban as they were trying to plant a roadside bomb in Kandahar's Panjwayi district, the statement said, adding that two militants were killed and another two were injured in the attack.
The Taliban-led violence is currently at its worst level in Afghanistan as the US and NATO forces plan to increase the number of their troops and operations in the southern region, the main hub for Taliban activity in the country.