Dozens of militants were killed in southern and eastern Afghanistan overnight in clashes with U.S.-led foreign troops and Afghan forces, officials said on Saturday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, meanwhile, called for greater care by foreign forces engaging insurgents after a spate of civilian deaths.
A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said troops clashed with a large group of insurgents near the porous Pakistan border in Paktika province, killing around 40 of them and wounding several others.
He said it was the biggest concentration of insurgent strength since January, when over 100 were killed while crossing the border, but full details were still being gathered.
Elsewhere, at least 20 suspected Taliban militants were killed in a seven-hour gunbattle in the Sha Wali Kot district of Kandahar province, while several others were killed in at least three other separate engagements, the U.S. military said in a statement.
Violence has surged in Afghanistan in recent months after a traditional winter lull, with foreign forces launching attacks against Taliban strongholds in the south and east, and the guerrillas hitting back with roadside and suicide bombings.
More than 4,000 people were killed in fighting in 2006, a quarter of them civilians and about 170 of them foreign soldiers.
In Kabul, Karzai said those fighting the insurgents were being "careless" following a spate of civilian deaths including 25 killed in an air strike on a compound in the south on Friday.
"In the past five or six nights and days, we had huge civilian casualties ... caused by NATO and coalition carelessness," he told a news briefing in the capital.
Karzai called for better coordination between foreign forces and Afghan authorities before launching air raids, adding: "If NATO wants to succeed in the war against terror, if they want security in Afghanistan, they should coordinate."
More than 230 civilians have been killed this year alone during operations by foreign and Afghan forces, according to an umbrella body for aid groups in Afghanistan.
Some 20 militants, meanwhile, were detained in operations early on Saturday against al-Qaida at three compounds in Giro district of Ghazni Province, the U.S. military said.
"We will intensify our operations to rid Afghanistan of all Taliban fighters who harm innocent Afghan civilians and threaten the government of Afghanistan," said a U.S. military spokesman, Maj. Chris Belcher.
