Coalition and Afghan forces killed 12 militants and one civilian in a province next to the Afghan capital in a mission that included airstrikes, an Afghan official said Friday, while a member of the Nato-led force was killed in violence in the east.

The joint coalition-Afghan mission late Thursday killed the 12 militants in Logar, one province south of Kabul, said Mustafa Mosseini, the provincial police chief. He said that militants forced their way into a civilian home and that a civilian woman was also killed during the battie.

Militants commonly use civilian homes for cover, a tactic that puts innocent Afghans in the line of fire. Nato’s top general in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, has ordered his ground commanders to consider breaking away from a fight if they think civilians are in danger.

Civilian deaths are a huge source of friction between Western military forces and President Hamid Karzai, who has pleaded with Nato and the US to cut down on the number of civilians killed in combat.

The Nato-led force, meanwhile, said one of its troops died in a "hostile incident" in eastern Afghanistan, where the overwhelming majority of troops are American. Nato did not release the service member's nationality or any other details of the incident.

In the central Ghazni province, a roadside bomb killed four construction workers, while a battle between militants and police elsewhere in the province killed two militants, said Ghulam Zekria, a police official.

US commanders have said they expect violence in Afghanistan to spike this year. Last year was the deadliest year for American troops since the 2001 US invasion to oust the Taliban for hosting al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

President Barack Obama has ordered 21,000 more troops to the country to bolster the 38,000 Americans already fighting in an increasingly violent insurgency.