An Afghan official says eight kidnapped security officials have been found dead in Wardak province, the area where a fatal helicopter crash last week killed 38 troops, most of them Americans.

Provincial spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said the bodies were found late Friday night. The victims – five policemen and three Afghan intelligence officers – were abducted Thursday while traveling along a main road leading to Bamiyan province.

Shahid said police have detained three suspected militants in connection with the incident. Reuters news agency reports a Taliban spokesman says his group carried out the killings.

Wardak province is one of Afghanistan's most conflict-ridden, with heavy fighting between the Taliban and international troops. Last week's Chinook helicopter crash there was the deadliest single incident for the United States since the war in Afghanistan began a decade ago.

The American aircraft was brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade fire from Taliban fighters on the ground.

In southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, five civilians were killed Saturday morning when their minivan struck a roadside bomb. Provincial officials say the victims were three women and two men from the same family.

The United Nations says 1,462 civilians were killed in Afghanistan in the first half of this year, and that insurgents are to blame for about 80 percent of those deaths.