KABUL (AFP) -- Four suspected Taliban militants and a 13-year-old girl were killed Tuesday during a joint operation by the U.S.-led coalition and the Afghan army in eastern Afghanistan, the coalition said.

A girl, aged eight, was also injured when the soldiers raided a house near the village of Darnami in the restive Khost province where the alleged insurgents were hiding out, a coalition statement said.

After requests to surrender "the suspected terrorists refused to comply with verbal warnings and began firing," it said. "During the engagements, four military-aged males and a 13-year-old girl were killed, and an eight-year-old girl was wounded."

The wounded girl was taken to a coalition hospital, escorted by a family member, the coalition said.

The statement accused "enemies of the Afghan government" of using civilians as human shields.

There were no casualties among the Afghan soldiers or coalition troops. The 10,000-strong U.S.-dominated coalition operates alongside a NATO force of more than 30,000 troops.

A coalition spokesman was unable to give further details about the dead suspects or say if any prisoners were taken.

More than 1,000 civilians have died in violence linked to the Taliban regime this year, the bloodiest in Afghanistan since the fundamentalist regime was toppled by U.S.-led forces.