KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan and international troops killed 14 Taliban militants and an insurgent rocket attack killed two civilians in the latest fighting, provincial authorities and the U.S. military said Monday.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan with some 3,800 people -- a third of them civilians -- killed by the end of July this year, the United Nations said.

Already more foreign troops have been killed so far this year than in any year since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001 for refusing to hand over al Qaeda leaders behind the September 11 attacks on the United States.

U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops killed five militants in an operation targeting facilitators for foreign fighters in Ghazni province, some 200 km (125) miles southwest of Kabul on Monday, a U.S. military statement said.

Separately, two civilians were killed and three injured when a rocket landed on their home in Khost Sunday, the provincial police chief said.

"The rocket was aimed at a nearby foreign troop base," Abdul Qayum Batizoy said.

Meanwhile, nine Taliban insurgents were killed during a joint operation by Afghan and international troops in the Waghaz district of Ghazni province Sunday, said provincial police chief Mohammad Zaman.

(Reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by David Fox)

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