KABUL, Sept 8: Taliban detonated a car bomb outside an Afghan intelligence office near the capital on Sunday and then tried to attack it on foot with guns, officials and militants said.

Four soldiers were killed and six insurgents died in the assault in Maidan Shahr of Wardak province.

In another incident on Sunday, officials said, a Nato air strike killed 15 people — nine of them civilians, including women and children — in a remote eastern province.

Nato claimed 10 militants had died in the strike. Police quoted some witnesses as saying that a drone was used.

Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said the explosion occurred around 1pm. Soldiers guarding the compound managed to kill the militants after the explosion, he said. Mr Khogyani said four soldiers and five attackers died, in addition to the car bomber.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.

Meanwhile, conflicting reports emerged from the air strike in the Watapur district of Kunar, a province along the border with Pakistan.

Kunar province police chief Abdul Habib Sayed Khaili said the air strike hit a pick-up truck carrying women and children in Qoro village soon after three Arab and three Afghan militants boarded it.

Of the 15 dead, four were women, four were children and one was the driver, the official said. Watapur district chief Zalmai Yousefi also confirmed the air strike and said 15 people were killed, including women and children.

Nato spokeswoman 1st Lt. AnnMarie Annicelli said the military alliance carried out a “precision strike” that killed 10 “enemy forces,” but that it had received no reports of any civilians dying. —AP