A bomb attack killed four soldiers of the US-led Coalition forces and one Afghan in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, a statement of the US-led military released?in Kabul said.

"Four Coalition service members and one Afghan national were killed in an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) strike in eastern Afghanistan this morning," the statement said.

However, it did not identify the nationalities of the victims, adding the names and nationalities of the service members are being withheld until the next of kin are notified.

The Coalition did not disclose the exact place of the incident either. Over 100 American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year mostly in the militancy-plagued southern and eastern provinces.

The bomb blast came just hours after U. defense secretary Robert Gates arrived in Kabul late Tuesday for an unannounced visit to get first-hand information about the spiraling Taliban-led militancy in Afghanistan.

Gates held talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai Wednesday morning and during the visit he is also expected to talk with US military commanders in Kabul.

Meanwhile, the Coalition forces in another statement said that the troops killed two militants and detained two others during an operation in the central Ghazni province Tuesday.

A total of 71,000 international troops, half of them US service members, are stationed in Afghanistan to stabilize security in the post-Taliban central Asian state.

Taliban-related violence and conflicts have left over 3,800 people including militants, Afghan and international troops as well as civilians and aid workers dead this year in Afghanistan.

(Xinhua News Agency September 17, 2008)