Kabul, Oct 25 (IANS) Eight Afghan army personnel have been killed in separate bomb attacks since early Thursday, authorities said Friday.

In one attack, six air force personnel were killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Rodgard area of Shindand district in western Herat province, Xinhua quoted district governor Lal Mohammad Omarzai as saying.

"The officers were returning from (an) army air force base to provincial capital Herat city. The van they were travelling in touched off the IED on the roadside, killing all six people aboard," the governor told Xinhua. 

The Afghan Taliban has launched massive IED attacks against Afghan national security forces and over 87,000 NATO-led troops stationed in the country.

Two other soldiers were killed and six injured in five IED attacks in Kunar, Ghazni, Kandahar and Helmand provinces over the same period of time, the Afghan Defence Ministry reported on its website.

In addition, a civilian was killed in a similar attack in eastern Paktika province.

Early Friday morning, three militants were killed and two injured when the militants launched an attack on police security checkpoints near a power dam in Helmand province. No policeman was hurt in the attack.

Separately, eight Taliban militants were killed in an army operation in Nirkh district of eastern Wardak province overnight, the provincial government said earlier Friday.

The Taliban-led attacks and unrest have plagued parts of the war-torn country since late April when the insurgent group launched an offensive.