BEIJING, May 21 -- After a 24-hour spasm of violence that claimed the lives of some 120 people earlier this week, fighting erupted again on Friday in southern Afghanistan, resulting in 34 deaths, according to an AP report.

The Afghanistan authority is on high alert after the lates fighting that claimed 34 lives.A civilian is being searched in the picture when passing by a security checkpoint.[Xinhua/Reuters]

On Friday, heavily armed militants crouching in a vineyard field ambushed an Afghan army convoy, killing four Afghan soldiers but costing 15 of their own. In the meantime, violence elsewhere claimed another 15 lives - including two French troops and a US soldier.

The fighting took place in Helmand province, the main opium poppy-growing region, where drug profits are believed to fund the insurgency, said Gen. Rehmatullah Raufi, the military commander for the southern region.

The two sides exchanged fire with machine-guns and assault rifles for six hours, before the insurgents fled on foot and motorbikes, Raufi said.

The US soldier was killed Friday in Uruzgan province, also in the south, while conducting a joint patrol with Afghan forces on Friday moring, the US military said in a statement.

At least 235 members of the US military have died in and around Afghanistan since 2001, as a result of the US invasion of Afghanistan, according to the US Defense Department.

The two French soldiers were killed Saturday while fighting the Taleban in Kandahar province, the French Defense Ministry said.

France has had 200 special forces officers in southeast Afghanistan since 2003 as part of the US-led coalition.

Violence has been steadily increasing across Afghanistan for the past 18 months, despite the presence of some 23,000 US troops and a separate NATO-led peacekeeping force numbered 9,000 men.