The Taliban has claimed responsibility for a roadside bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan in which six Nato service members were killed, Belfast Telegraph said.

A statement from Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the soldiers died when their tank ran over the device at around 8pm on Sunday in Wardak province, south of Kabul.

Nato would not disclose the nationalities of the service members killed, but Afghan officials said they were American.

Wardak provincial police chief General Abdul Qayum Baqizoi said that after the blast in Jalrez district, a coalition air strike killed a local Taliban commander and injured three insurgents.

Also in the east, authorities said a chief prosecutor in Ghazni province was assassinated this morning as he drove to work. The Taliban routinely target Afghan government officials.