KABUL, Oct 29: A US and a British soldier were gunned down in Afghanistan on Saturday in a deadly series of attacks that claimed 23 lives, including those of 14 suspected Taliban insurgents, officials said.

The US soldier was killed on patrol on the border with Pakistan, while the British trooper was shot dead in an ambush in Mazar-i-Sharif, military officials said.

The militants were killed by US-led coalition and Afghan troops, supported by attack helicopters and aircraft, in battles on Thursday and Friday in which an Afghan soldier also died, the coalition said.

Thirteen were shot dead in Uruzgan province, where the Afghan soldier was killed, it said in a statement. A US soldier and an Afghan trooper were wounded but were in stable conditions.

US troops killed another militant in Paktika on Friday when he and others were spotted allegedly trying to plant a bomb, the coalition said. Two others were captured and handed over to Afghan police, it said.—AFP