Three women and a child were killed along with 17 militants in an attack by the United States-led forces on a militant compound in eastern Afghanistan, the force and an official said Wednesday.

The incident happened on Tuesday when the US-led coalition targeted a hideout in Mata Khan district of Paktika province from the ground and the air, it said in a statement. The coalition said several militants were killed without giving a specific number, but a spokesman for the provincial government, Ghamai Khan Mohammadyar, put the militants death toll at 17.

The coalition said one of the women was killed after the troops called in warplanes to target militants who were firing on the troops from inside and outside the compound. "When coalition forces forcibly gained entry to the barricaded room, three Afghan women and one boy were wounded," it said, adding that the civilians later died from their injuries in a coalition medical facility.

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