KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – A coalition air strike in southern Afghanistan killed a Taliban commander and 15 other militants, the U.S. military said Saturday. A top American general, meanwhile, said insurgents are still using neighboring Pakistan as a base for infiltration.

Two French soldiers were killed and two others were wounded in the volatile east on Friday, while at least 13 other insurgents were killed in clashes with police and NATO in the south, the U.S. military said. On Saturday, Canadian troops in the south mistakenly killed a policeman and wounded six other people, including two civilians, according to NATO.

Afghanistan is experiencing its worst bout of violence since the late-2001 ouster of the Taliban regime for hosting al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. More than 1,600 people, mostly militants, have died in the past four months, according to an Associated Press tally of violent incidents reported by U.S., NATO and Afghan officials.

Gen. John Abizaid, commander of the U.S. Central Command, said militants are using Pakistan as a base from which to infiltrate into Afghanistan, but he said the Pakistani government is not conspiring with them.

“I think that Pakistan has done an awful lot in going after al-Qaida and it’s important that they don’t let the Taliban groups be organized in the Pakistani side of the border,” he told reporters in Bagram, where the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan is located.

Abizaid said he “absolutely does not believe” accusations of collusion between Pakistan’s government and the resurgent Taliban rebels or other extremists. “You do not order your soldiers in the field against an enemy in order to play some sort of a game with neighboring countries,” he said.

Afghanistan repeatedly has criticized Pakistan for not doing enough to prevent Taliban militants and other rebels from crossing the poorly marked border. Pakistan, a former Taliban supporter but now a U.S. ally in its war on terrorism, says it does all it can to tackle insurgents and has deployed 80,000 troops along the frontier.

A coalition forces air strike killed a local Taliban commander and 15 other militants in the central Khod Valley of the Uruzgan Province on Friday, the U.S. military said without identifying the leader.

The strike brought rebel casualties to 29 over 24 hours.

That operation came the same day that a roadside bomb and a gunfight in the eastern Laghman province left two French soldiers dead and another two wounded, the U.S. military said in an earlier statement.

In southern Helmand province, NATO-led forces used artillery against an insurgent convoy Friday, killing seven militants, an alliance spokesman said.

The convoy was spotted by British troops in the Musa Qala district of southern Helmand province who then ordered the strike, said Maj. Luke Knittig, a spokesman for the NATO-led force.

The insurgents were traveling in a 12-vehicle convoy before they were hit, he said. Three vehicles got away while eight were destroyed or disabled, Knittig said.

Police clashed with suspected Taliban militants in southern Zabul province, killing six insurgents and wounding 12, said Hussein Ali, the Argandab district chief. One policeman was wounded.

In Ghazni province, militants attacked a building early Saturday, killing one court official and wounding two policemen, said Abdul Ali Fakuri, spokesman for Ghazni’s governor. Three vehicles were burned during the attack, he said.

Canadian troops, meanwhile, mistakenly exchanged fire with plainclothes policemen in the south, killing one officer and wounding four other police, a NATO statement said.

The armed police, wearing civilian clothes, were shot after they did not heed orders by troops to stop as they approached a Canadian checkpoint in a speeding unmarked vehicle in the southern Kandahar province, the statement said.

Two other civilians were injured shortly afterward, when the Canadian troops fired at their speeding scooter near the same checkpoint, the statement said.

Afghan officials were not available for comment on the shootings, which occurred a day after President Hamid Karzai ordered a probe into the killings of eight people in a U.S.-Afghan raid on a compound in eastern Kunar province.

U.S. forces said Thursday’s raid targeted al-Qaida members, but local police said the dead were civilians – the second time in a week Karzai’s government has questioned the military’s tactics. A child was among those killed, and a woman was wounded.