KABUL, Nov 20: 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 a exchange of fire," Mr Haq who is a close aide 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.

US military spokesman Major Mark McCann said he had no information on the incident.

"We are still looking into it," he said.-AFP