Four suspected militants were killed and five others were arrested in a pre-dawn raid by US-led and Afghan forces in eastern Afghanistan, officials said on Saturday. The men were killed when they engaged coalition and Afghan forces in a gunfight in Barikaw district of eastern Nangarhar province, provincial official Faizanul Haq said.
"They were killed during an exchange of fire," Haq who is a close aid to provincial governor Din Mohammad told AFP.
The fighting erupted when armed men attacked the troops from a house where the soldiers later arrested five other armed individuals, he added.
Haq did not say who the men were affiliated with but said coalition and Afghan forces were on a search operation when the clash occurred.
A high-ranking ministry of defence official who asked not to be named confirmed the casualties and arrests but said the operation was mainly carried out by coalition forces rather than Afghans.
US military spokesman Major Mark McCann said he had no information on the incident.
"We are still looking into it," he said.