Following suicide attack proliferation, a homemade bomb killed a member of the U.S.-led NATO coalition in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, hours after the Taliban attacked a hilltop police post in the north, killing eight Afghan policemen, officials said.

The NATO death raised the number of coalition troops who have been killed in Afghanistan this year to 173. The coalition did not provide any further details about Wednesday's attack.

The policemen who were attacked by the Taliban on Tuesday evening in Badakhsan province's Warduj district waged a three-hour battle to retake their post, killing six militants in the process, said the provincial governor's spokesman, Abdul Maruf Rasikh. Two policemen and 11 militants were wounded, he said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent to reporters by the group's spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid.

Badakhshan province is relatively peaceful but has experienced periodic attacks. Two foreign doctors and their three Afghan colleagues were kidnapped last week in Badakhshan.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, three district government employees were killed by a roadside bomb as they were traveling to work Wednesday morning in eastern Nangarhar province's Deh Bala district, said district chief Asrarullah.(AP)