KABUL (AP) -- Two NATO soldiers were killed while on patrol in restive southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, while more than 20 suspected insurgents were reported to have died in coalition air strikes and ground battles, authorities said.

The fighting on Tuesday and Wednesday came after Afghan forces claimed to have killed a Taleban commander involved in the kidnapping of 23 South Korean church workers in central Afghanistan in July.
Taleban-led militants are waging a bloody resistance campaign against the Western-supported government of President Hamid Karzai, which replaced the hard-line Islamic militia after the U.S. invasion in 2001.
The two dead soldiers were from NATO's International Security Assistance Force, the alliance said in a statement. It said another ISAF solider and an interpreter were injured, but gave no more details, including the soldiers' nationalities.
Afghan and coalition soldiers in Shah Wali Kot district, in southern Kandahar province, came under attack while on patrol Tuesday. They fought back before calling in air support, a coalition statement said.
""Surgical and precision air strikes were carried out on positively identified enemy positions from where machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire was originating,"" the statement said. ""Over a dozen insurgents were killed in this engagement.""
About 18 miles away, insurgents sheltering in a traditional low-walled Afghan compound attacked another joint patrol on Tuesday. Air strikes later pounded the position, killing six insurgents, the statement said.
In Ghazni Province, insurgents early Wednesday attacked a joint coalition and Afghan force, triggering a clash that left ""several militants"" dead, a coalition statement said. A number of civilians were injured in the clash, the coalition said