KABUL: Six Taliban militants are dead after a roadside bomb they were planting exploded prematurely.

Abdul Zarif, an Afghan official in Zabul province, says the six militants were planting the bomb around 3 a.m. Monday in the Naw Bahar district of Zabul when the bomb exploded.

Militants have greatly increased their use of roadside bombs in Afghanistan this year. A record number of U.S. and NATO troops were killed in the country in July, many of them from roadside bombs.