Gunmen kill 8 civilians in Afghanistan

Gunmen ambushed a car carrying Afghan civilians working on a remote US military base in eastern Afghanistan and killed eight of them execution-style, a police official said on Friday.

The victims, who worked for the US military as labourers in the mountainous Korangal area of Kunar province, were killed on Thursday while driving home from work, said Abdul Saboor, Kunar's deputy police chief.

Gunmen stopped the workers' car, searched them and took about $6,000 (euro 4,780) before gunning them down, said Salehzai Didar, Kunar's governor. Two workers escaped, he said.

"This was a shocking attack against these poor people," Saboor said.

Saboor did not identify the attackers, other than to describe them as "the enemy."

Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents operate in eastern Afghan regions bordering Pakistan.

US and Afghan troops, meanwhile, raided a compound linked to homemade bomb makers early on Friday, killing one suspected militant and detaining four others, the US-led coalition said.

During the operation in the eastern Khost province village of Bodakhel, one militant pointed a gun at soldiers, who shot him dead, a coalition statement said.

Troops found explosives, detonation cords and multiple blasting caps.

No US or Afghan troops were hurt.

Afghanistan this year has faced its deadliest surge in violence since US-led forces ousted the Taliban regime five years ago for hosting Osama bin Laden.

On Thursday, suicide bombings in the southern province of Helmand killed a British soldier, two children and a policeman.