Twenty-three people have been killed in attacks in Afghanistan, including seven NATO soldiers in a helicopter crash.
It is understood that the helicopter in the NATO-led force was shot down in Kajaki, in Helmand province in the south of the country.
Five of those killed were US soldiers and the remaining two were British and Canadian.
In an apparent response to the attack, dozens of alleged Taliban members were later killed in air strikes close to where the Chinook helicopter went down.
NATO said the fighting was part of a broader offensive aimed at extending the Afghan government's control into the north of Helmand province.
Helmand, a long-time bastion of the Taliban, is the leading drug-producing region of Afghanistan, the world's main heroin supplier.
It has been the scene of a series of frequent clashes between Taliban and NATO-led forces in recent months.
In a separate incident, 16 Afghan police officers were killed in an ambush south of the capital, Kabul.
Police were travelling in a three-vehicle convoy to the capital when it was ambushed along a main highway.
The attack on the police was the deadliest attacks on the fledgling force in a number of weeks.
