Kabul, Feb 18 (IANS): Six Afghan army soldiers were killed Monday in a roadside bombing in the county's eastern province of Kapisa, sources said Tuesday.

"A line of army vehicles were returning after they ended an operation in the mountainous Alasay district late Monday. An improvised explosive device (IED) hit one army van, killing six soldiers," a provincial security official told Xinhua.

He said the vehicle was destroyed in the attack in the province 65 km from Afghanistan's capital Kabul.

Several militants were also killed and wounded following the operation, he said.

In another incident, four militants were killed and four others wounded in an airstrike conducted by the security forces in Naw Zad district of southern Helmand province overnight, the district's governor, Sayyed Murad Sadat, told Xinhua earlier Tuesday.

The militants had set up an illegal checkpoint and were terrorising the locals, before they came under attack, the official noted.

The Taliban insurgent group has intensified attacks recently as the Afghan army and police took the full operational lead from foreign troops in June last year.

The war-torn country is due to take over the responsibility for its own security from foreign troops by the end of the year.