Kabul  - A NATO soldier was killed by a roadside bomb explosion in southern Afghanistan Saturday, while the Afghan and international forces killed 47 suspected Taliban and an Afghan women in separate operations elsewhere in the country, the military said.

In the latest incident, the soldier, who was a member of the NATO- led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) died of wounds he had sustained during a roadside bomb blast in the southern region, ISAF said in a statement.

The statement did not reveal the nationality of the soldier, nor did it say where exactly in southern region the incident took place. Most of the soldiers serving under the banner of ISAF are from Canada, Britain, Netherlands and the United States.

In southern Helmand province, Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed 15 militants in an operation in Kajaki district on Saturday, the US military said in statement.

The compounds where the militants were targeted were used for weapons and bomb-making, materials trafficking, and as a safe-haven for insurgent fighters moving between Helmand and Oruzgan provinces, it said.

Also in Kajaki district, the combined forces killed 20 other suspected insurgents in another operation on Friday, a separate US military statement said.

The militants were killed by small arms fire and airstrike after they attacked the combined forces who were conducting a combat reconnaissance patrol in the areas, the statement said, adding that six Taliban fighting positions were also destroyed.

Kajaki district, where the largest hydro-power plant in the region is located, has witnessed a series of clashes between Taliban insurgents and Afghan forces backed by international troops.

In the past five days more than 100 insurgents were killed in separate clash in Kajaki and in the neighbouring province of Uruzgan, according to military sources.

"Militants in the Kajaki district are known to be heavily involved in bomb-making, weapons smuggling, drug activity, direct attacks on Afghan and Coalition forces and intimidation of the local people," the military statement said.

Separately, Afghan and NATO-led ISAF forces killed 12 suspected insurgents during a gun-battle in Baraki Rajan area of Baraki Barak district of central Logar province, ISAF said in separate statement. A woman was also killed in the cross fire, it said.

The firefight began after the combined forces pinpointed a group of insurgents trying to plant a roadside bomb, it said, adding that the militants retreated to a compound and then the shootout started when they refused to surrender peacefully.

Five suspected militants were detained by joint forces, it said, but did not say if there were any casualties on the side of the combined forces.

Logar province, which lies on the southern border of Kabul has seen a series of clashes between insurgents, and government forces and NATO troops in the past two months after several hundred US soldiers were deployed to the province in January.

Wary of insurgents' infiltration into Kabul city, around 4,000 US troops were deployed earlier this year to Logar and the neighbouring province of Wardak, which lies on the western part of Kabul, to stop the militants from advancing towards the capital city.

The Taliban are said to operate in around two-thirds of Afghanistan, and the US government is planning to send 17,000 additional combat forces and 4,000 military advisors and trainers to Afghanistan this year to contain the insurgency.

With new US forces, there will be more than 90,000 international forces in Afghanistan deployed from 42 nations. Around 170,000 Afghan security forces are also battling the resurgent Taliban alongside their international partners.

But Afghan and NATO commanders on the ground are asking for tens of thousands more forces to change the situation for the benefit of the allied forces. (dpa)