KABUL, March 19 (Xinhua)-- At least six persons were killed as international troops carried out air attacks on suspected hideout of Taliban militants in Afghanistan's eastern Khost province in the wee hours of Wednesday, local police said.

    "It was very early this morning when aircraft of foreign troops raided a house in Om area of Nadir Shah Kot district, leaving six persons dead," police spokesman Wazir Badshah told Xinhua.

    However, he could not identify if the casualties were militantsor civilians.

    Meanwhile, a statement from the U.S.-led Coalition troops said several militants including two civilians, a woman and a boy, were killed in the Coalition operation in Nadir Shah kot district of Khost province.

    "Coalition forces searched compounds in the Nadar Shahkot District targeting Bismullah, a militant conducting improvised explosive device and weapons facilitation operations," the statement said.

    Several armed militants were killed when they fired on Coalition forces during the search and two suspected militants were detained, it said.

    Coalition forces discovered a dead woman during a post-hostilities assessment in a building from where one of the barricaded militants fired on Coalition forces and a dead child was in another building where another barricaded militant was killed, it further added.

    The Coalition raid came just one day after the NATO airstrike in southern Afghan province of Helmand which, according to a local lawmaker, left more than 50 dead, including 32 civilians. But the claim was strongly denied by NATO.

    Similar incidents in the past had claimed the lives of civilians in parts of the country, mostly in the southern region.

    Afghan President Hamid Karzai had more than once called on the international troops based in Afghanistan to coordinate military operations with local authorities in order to avoid harming non-combatants.