KABUL, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Four U.S. soldiers were killed in eastern Afghanistan as al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, called for more battles against coalition forces in a video released Thursday, while Afghanistan President had vowed to capture him.

    Coalition forces said Thursday that four U.S. soldiers were killed and one wounded on Wednesday during combat operations in a remote area of Kamdesh district in the eastern Nuristan province.

    The Afghan National Army and coalition forces have been conducting operations in Nuristan, where hundreds of insurgents are believed to have hidden, since Operation Mountain Lion began in mid-April.

    Al-Zawahri called on Afghans to launch more attacks on the U.S.-led coalition forces in this country in the video posted on a website frequently used by militants.

    "Muslim brothers in Afghanistan, and especially in Kabul, stand as one with the Mujahidin so that the invading forces might be expelled," said al-Zawahri with an automatic rifle propped up behind.

    The video was apparently recorded one day after the Kabul unrest on May 29 after a reckless U.S. military vehicle killed five Afghans.

    "I direct my speech today to my Muslim brothers in Kabul who lived the bitter events yesterday," al-Zawahri said.

    Afghan President Hamid Karzai called al-Zawahri "the enemy of Afghans," and vowed to capture him, when being asked for his comments on the video in a press conference held Thursday.

    "Al-Zawahri killed Afghans for years, thousands," Karzai said. "He is the cause of misery in Afghanistan. He is the first enemy of Afghans, and the enemy of the rest world."

    "We in Afghanistan want him arrested, and he should be put to justice," said Karzai, who blamed al-Zawahri for destroying mosques, schools, vineyards and orchards.

    Karzai's vow came amid over 11,000 coalition and Afghan troops launched the major phase of Operation Mountain Thrust in mid-June in four southern provinces to wipe out Taliban militants there.

    More than 100 rebels have been killed in the offensive in recent days.

    Afghanistan has witnessed a rise of violence in the past six months, during which at least 1,000 were killed, mostly Taliban-linked militants.

    Karzai on Thursday complained that the approach to hunt down militants does not focus on the roots of terrorism.

    "We must engage strategically in disarming terrorism by stopping their sources of supply of money, training, equipment and motivation," he said.

    "It is not acceptable for us that in all this fighting, Afghans are dying. In the last three to four weeks, 500 to 600 Afghans were killed."

    Coalition forces also suffer some deaths and many injuries since the beginning of this year. Over 40 U.S. troops and nearly 20 other foreign soldiers were killed in Afghanistan.

    On Wednesday evening, at least six people including two coalition soldiers were injured in a suicide car bomb explosion in the southern Kandahar province.

    Earlier in the day, four Canadian soldiers were wounded in Kandahar city as their vehicle hit by a roadside bomb. Enditem