KUNDUZ (AFP) A roadside bomb struck a police patrol Sunday in the remote northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan, killing seven officers, officials said, in the latest violence blamed on the Taliban. Linked to the violence, a police commander said that he was investigating claims by local villagers that Nato forces had killed and injured civilians in an air raid originally aimed at Taliban. And military officials said up to a dozen Taliban-linked militants, including their commander, were killed when Nato and Afghan troops backed by air support struck their sanctuaries in the northern Baghlan mountains. The police officers were killed when a roadside bomb, the type often used by Taliban Islamist militants, hit their vehicle on a dirt road, deputy provincial governor Shams-Ul Rahman Shams said. We blame the attack on the armed opposition groups, he told AFP, referring to Taliban. It was a remote-controlled bomb. In Kandahar province, centre of the insurgency, Nato helicopters raided a militant hideout in Panjwayi district early Sunday, killing up to eight insurgents, said Sardar Mohammad Zazai, Kandahar provincial police chief. Local farmer Hazarat, who uses only one name, told AFP at the Kandahar city hospital that the strike had injured four civilians, including his father. Elsewhere in Kandahar, Afghan men evacuating wounded relatives said Nato helicopters struck their mudbrick homes, killing one and injuring four others. We were at home. There were no Taliban in the village. The helicopters just came and bombed our homes and left. Four people including my son were injured. One person was killed, an elderly man, giving his name as only Karim, told AFP at the Kandahars Mirwais hospital. He said the International Committee of the Red Cross had evacuated his wounded son to the hospital. The police chief said both claims were under investigation but as far as I know there was only Taliban hit. Natos International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was investigating the claims of civilians casualties, but spokesman Captain Marco Pica said there was no immediate information. In Baghlan, north of Kabul, Afghan and Nato troops located a group of Taliban militants hiding in mountains on Saturday, said Murad Ali Murad, military commander for northern Afghanistan. We conducted an operation and we killed 12 Taliban including two commanders. Their bodies are left in the area, Murad said. The rebels had fled to the mountains following operations across Baghlan launched about a month ago, he said.