Two rebels and three government agents were also among the dead after fierce clashes involving rockets and machine-guns raged for around 10 hours at a "safe house" in the west of the capital, the country's spy chief said.

The Taliban confirmed the deaths of the two insurgents and the woman and the child, adding that both the dead men took part in an attack on a military parade at the weekend which was attended by Karzai and foreign diplomats.

Spy chief Amrullah Saleh said the "very sophisticated terrorist cell" had a direct link to Sunday's Karzai attack, with one of the dead rebels having bought and moved weapons to the hotel where the attack was launched.

Saleh said his men used heavy weapons after the rebels killed the child because it was screaming. The soldiers then laid waste to the building after the three agents were killed while trying to go in and arrest the militants.

The woman was not an Afghan and had come to the country to carry out a suicide attack, he said.

The spy chief said they had evidence that the "terrorists" received orders for the attack on Karzai from sources in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt and were receiving orders from there up to the very last minute.

"There were telephone numbers, exchange of messages and proof that they were receiving orders from across our borders. Whether they were receiving these guidance ordered by government of Pakistan or not, we have no proof," he said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP that two rebels named Attah Mohammad and Mirwais were killed in the operation, along with Mohammad's wife and baby daughter.

"They had planned and executed Sunday's attack on the military parade and had managed to escape after the attack while three of their friends were killed that day," Mujahid said by telephone.

The Taliban spokesman said another rebel had escaped Wednesday's government raid on a house in the Guzargah suburb in the Afghan capital.

An AFP photographer saw intelligence agents drive three men away in handcuffs as the gunfire and explosions continued earlier in the day. The fighting died off around lunchtime.

Security forces also carried out raids on two other militant hideouts in the capital, defence minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said. Six suspects were arrested in one in northeast Kabul and another operation was ongoing in the east.

Wardak said that a suspect arrested at the scene of Sunday's attack gave information about the infiltration of "terrorist" cells into Afghan security agencies.

Karzai was unharmed in Sunday's brazen attack on a parade marking 16 years since the fall of the last communist government, but a tribal chief was killed in the attack and a parliamentarian died of bullet wounds hours later.

A 10-year-old boy was killed in the return fire, as were three militants.

Afghan interior minister Zarar Ahmad Muqbil said the three hideouts raided Wednesday were also linked to an attack on Kabul's five-star Serena Hotel on January 14 in which eight people died, including three foreigners.

The 1996-2001 Taliban government was ousted in a US-led invasion for harbouring Al-Qaeda leaders after the 9/11 attacks. They have regrouped to wage an insurgency that last year left 8,000 people dead, mostly rebel fighters.

Officials said US Marines and British forces have cleared militant positions in a Taliban stronghold of Garmser in southern Helmand province, two days after launching a major operation against the rebels.

Separately a spokesman for Britain's Prince William, second-in-line to the throne, said the young royal visited troops in Afghanistan this weekend, less than a month after his younger brother finished a tour of duty there.

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