At least 14 people were killed and four injured when a minibus in which they were traveling hit a roadside bomb in the Herat province of Afghanistan on Thursday, reports quoting officials said.

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An official spokesman told media that the incident took place in Kushk Kuhna district and the victims were members of an extended family on their way to attend a wedding ceremony.

Security forces defused two other bombs planted in the region located close to the Afghan-Turkmenistan border.

Although no one has claimed responsibility, Taliban militants were suspected behind the incident.

Elsewhere in the war-ravaged country, four Afghan troops were killed when they were strafed by a NATO aircraft which mistook them for insurgents.

The two incidents came on a day when U.S. President Barack Obama revealed details of an assessment by the National Security Council on the military progress made in Afghanistan.

According to the five-page report, the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan had greatly weakened the Taliban's leadership. The summary concluded that enough progress has been made to warrant a "responsible reduction" of forces as scheduled.

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NATO soldiers were first deployed in Afghanistan in 2001 for counter-insurgency operations which led to the ouster of its Taliban-backed government.

Currently there are around 100,000 American troops in Afghanistan and the Obama administration has announced that a drawdown will start in July 2011 with a full pullout of U.S. and foreign troops in 2014.

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