Afghan and NATO forces killed eight insurgents and captured four in combat operations in the south-eastern region of the country, officials said Sunday.

In Zurmat district of south-eastern province of Paktia, five militants were killed and three wounded in an Afghan army operation backed by NATO troops Saturday, Niaz Mohammad Khalil, district administrative chief, said.

He said the operation began in the area after police found the dead bodies of two Afghan security forces in the area.

Khalil said one police officer and one army soldier had been kidnapped from their homes by militants during their holidays and were later killed.

In the neighbouring Khost province, Afghan army and international forces killed three Taliban fighters in combat Saturday, regional army spokesman Colonel Mohammad Gul said.

Gul said four other militants were captured in the operation, with no casualties on the side of combined forces.

In southern Kandahar province, police seized a car full of explosives and another vehicle used as guide, when the drivers tried to enter Kandahar city, the provincial capital, Sayed Agha Saqib, provincial police chief, said.

He said two Pakistanis and one Afghan were arrested from the cars and police discovered two roadside bombs in the province.

The NATO-led Canadian forces defused the bombs, Saqib said.

Taliban militants, whose government was toppled in a US-led military invasion in late 2001, have waged a bloody war against the Afghan army and some 70,000 international forces in the country.

The insurgents also have relied heavily on the use of roadside and suicide attacks after they sustained heavy casualties in previous years during the conventional fighting, according to Afghan and foreign military officials.