Nine security guards were killed and a Taliban rocket attack on a military base destroyed six armoured vehicles in Afghanistan.
Violence showed no sign of letting up in the build-up to a key NATO summit, where the presence of foreign forces in the country - and the timetable for their withdrawal - is likely to be high on the agenda.
The Taliban high command meanwhile ruled out a negotiated settlement, calling reports that they were involved in peace talks 'misleading rumours' and vowing to step up their campaign of targeted strikes at coalition troops.
'The aim is to entangle the enemy in an exhausting war of attrition and wear it away like the former Soviet Union,' the militant group said in a statement attributed to its leader, Mullah Omar.
'Our strategy is to increase our operations step by step and spread them to all parts of the country to compel the enemy to come out from their hideouts and then crush them through tactical raids,' he added.
Today’s deadliest strike was on a telecommunications tower in northern Kunduz province. Nine security guards, an Afghan police officer and seven Taliban were killed, local police said.
Telephone antennae have become a target for the Taliban and other insurgents since the militant group banned mobile telephone communications at night in areas they control.
The rebels maintain that the Afghan security forces and their international backers in the 150,000-strong US-led NATO force track down militants using mobile phone signals.
NATO leaders gather in Lisbon on Friday for a two-day meeting that is likely to be dominated by the conflict in Afghanistan, amid calls for foreign troops to begin handing over security powers from next year.
