Afghan officials say Taliban insurgents have killed 30 Afghans working for a road construction crew in the country's south.
Officials say the attack took place Thursday in the Sangin district of Helmand province. At least 17 people were wounded.
Officials say security guards protecting the construction workers were among those killed. A dozen bodies were taken to a hospital in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah on Friday.
In neighboring Kandahar province, NATO says an Afghan civilian was found shot dead and tied to a sign between two roadside bombs on Friday. The alliance says the bombs appeared to have been intended to kill anyone trying to remove the body.
Elsewhere in the south, NATO says a bomb attack killed two of its service members. An American soldier died in a similar attack on Thursday.
In eastern Afghanistan, NATO says insurgents attacked a NATO base in the Nari district of Kunar province Friday with indirect and small arms fire. NATO soldiers returned fire. Two Afghan civilians outside the base were wounded. No coalition members were injured.
Also in the east, the alliance said a civilian was killed during an overnight operation in Khost province.
NATO said a joint international and Afghan force was targeting a sub-commander with the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network. The alliance has repeatedly said it takes the issue of civilian casualties very seriously, and tries to avoid actions that may cause them. The topic was among those discussed by U.S. Senator John Kerry and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul Friday.
And NATO says the bodies of two Afghans who were kidnapped by insurgents Sunday were turned over to Afghan police in Logar province on Thursday. The alliance says the bodies were reportedly those of the Azrah district police chief and an official with the country's security agency.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
