Death toll mounting in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — A soldier in the U.S.-led coalition and 10 suspected Taliban militants died in the latest clashes to roil southern and eastern Afghanistan, while security was tightened in Kabul after a series of bombings, officials said Thursday.

The attacks have raised fears that Taliban militants are bringing their fight to the capital, nearly five years after their ouster in a U.S.-backed military campaign.

In eastern Afghanistan, militants fired on a coalition patrol in Paktika's Gayan district, killing one soldier.

A 10-year-old girl was also wounded in Wednesday's firefight and was in stable condition after surgery, a coalition statement said.

The statement did not identify the dead soldier or give a nationality.

President Hamid Karzai vowed that bombings targeting government officials and army officers in Kabul on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing one person and wounding about 60, wouldn't shake Afghans' hopes for peace.

Meanwhile, in the south, Afghan and coalition forces continued operations against Taliban fighters trying to reassert their control over their former Pashtun tribal heartland with a wave of deadly ambushes and suicide attacks.

Ten suspected militants and an Afghan soldier were killed Wednesday in Zabul province.

Security forces launched operations near Mount Zubaida, killing three suspected Taliban fighters and arresting four others, said provincial police chief Noor Mohammad Paktin.