US-led coalition force warplanes killed 32 Taliban militants in southeastern Afghanistan overnight, an Afghan official said Friday.

Coalition forces said they had reports of 20 militants killed in the operation in the troubled province of Paktika, but that Afghan authorities "may have more accurate information."

Provincial spokesman Ghamai Khan Mohammadyar said coalition reconnaissance planes located a number of Taliban militants in the province's Urgun district who had grouped for an attack.

The spokesman corrected an earlier statement saying the operation was carried out by NATO forces.

"Friendly forces bombed the enemy location and killed all 32 Taliban who had gathered there," he told AFP, without saying how the details of the casualties were obtained.

In a separate incident, Afghan police killed three Taliban militants in Jani Khail district of the same province and two other militants were wounded, Mohammadyar said.

Meanwhile, a roadside bomb struck a civilian vehicle Thursday in Waza Khwa district of Paktika, killing a man, his wife and his 12-year-old son, the spokesman added.

"They were on their way to a clinic when the blast took place and killed the man, his wife and his son," said the spokesman.

Paktika, a rural province in southeastern Afghanistan, sees occasional Taliban-led violence.

In addition a tribal elder, Malem Mohammad Akbar, was shot dead north of Kandahar city early Friday by two unknown gunmen, provincial police chief Sayed Aqa Saqib told AFP, blaming the attack on Taliban militants.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai condemned the attack and said Akbar "was a brave son of this land who spoke against foreign interference, terror and killing."