KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Strikes against insurgents in Afghanistan killed at least 40 people Saturday, NATO officials said.
NATO officials said the death toll included at least 25 people killed in an airstrike in the Nari district of Konar province in northeastern Afghanistan, The Washington Post reported.
Abdul Rahman Mangal, deputy provincial governor of Paktia province, told CNN seven road maintenance workers were accidentally killed by Afghan and NATO forces targeting a Taliban suspect Saturday.
In the northern province of Kunduz, a Taliban suicide bomber injured five Afghan soldiers and nine civilians at an army checkpoint, the BBC reported.
Meanwhile in the southern province of Kandahar, a bomb exploded near a police station, injuring at least 100 people Saturday, CNN said.
The carnage followed a road mine explosion Friday in a village in Helmand province that killed 15 people riding in a truck, the BBC said. A provincial spokesman said four other people were wounded in the attack the government attributed to Taliban rebels.
The Post said the fighting was unusual for this time of year, with clashes generally winding down in the winter months.
The newspaper also noted the fighting comes just ahead of a report U.S. agencies are to deliver to the Obama administration assessing how the war is going.
In the Konar province attack, a NATO statement said an air weapons team hit suspected insurgents after NATO soldiers "reported an imminent threat."
Military officials also said "numerous" insurgents were killed during a firefight with NATO soldiers in Darah-ye Pech district. No NATO troops died in the battle.
