KABUL, Feb 13: Four US soldiers were killed in a bomb blast in insurgency-plagued Afghanistan on Monday as five militia troops contracted to the US-led coalition and an Afghan soldier also died in attacks, officials said.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility on behalf of the group for the blast against the American troops.

They were on patrol in Uruzgan province with the Afghan army when their Humvee vehicle hit a suspected improvised explosive device, the coalition 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.

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

Five Afghan militiamen contracted to the coalition were killed late on Sunday in an ambush by suspected Taliban in Helmand, police said. Two were killed outright, the bodies of three were discovered later and two survived, provincial police chief Abdurahman Saber said.

Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, also claimed responsibility for the attack in Helmand’s Girishk district and said eight soldiers had been killed. In Kunar, an Afghan soldier was killed and five others wounded when a bomb ripped through their vehicle.—AFP