Afghanistan ? Roadside bombs struck two NATO convoys Thursday in eastern Afghanistan and killed two soldiers hours after an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition killed at least 35 militants in the south, officials said.

The NATO convoys were patrolling five miles apart when they were hit by roadside bombs within 30 minutes of each other, the statement said. In addition to the two dead, one NATO soldier was wounded. NATO did not identify the killed and injured soldiers, but most alliance soldiers in the east are American.

U.S. and Afghan security forces were ambushed by militants and fought them for about an hour in southern Zabul province’s Shahjoy district before the airstrike on the fighters’ positions, officials said.

The joint forces tracked several Taliban who fled on motorcycle from the area of caves northeast of the city of Qalat. They requested an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan that left 24 militants dead, a U.S. coalition statement said. Ali Kheil, a spokesman for the Zabul governor, said authorities recovered 35 militants’ bodies.