Four US soldiers were killed on Monday when their vehicle struck a bomb in insurgency-hit Afghanistan, the US-led coalition said. The soldiers were on patrol in volatile Uruzgan province with the Afghan army when their Humvee vehicle hit a suspected improvised explosive device, it said in a statement.

"Shortly after the attack, the patrol was engaged with small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire.

"The coalition responded with fixed - and rotary-wing attack aircraft to support the US forces on the ground," it said. The extent of the battle damage was still being assessed, it said.

Three other US soldiers have died in Afghanistan this year, two of them in hostile fire.

TALEBAN KILL EIGHT: Taliban guerrillas ambushed a militia unit working with US forces in southern Afghanistan, killing two men and capturing and later killing another six, the leader of the militia group said on Monday.

Militia commander Dawood said the ambush took place late on Sunday in the southern province of Helmand. The Taleban later killed the six captured men, he said. "We've found only three bodies but we know the other three have been killed too," Dawood told newsmen.

Copyright Associated Press of Pakistan, 2006