A Taliban bomb maker, his wife and two children were killed as his device exploded prematurely in his home in Afghanistan's northern Faryab province on Monday, provincial police spokesman Abdul Karim Yurash said Wednesday.

"A Taliban mine maker Mullah Sadrudin was making a mine in his home in Garzewan district on Monday evening but the device exploded suddenly killing himself, his wife and two of his children on the spot," Yurash told Xinhua.

The two children killed were five and eight years old respectively.

The bomb had been intended to be used as a roadside bomb to target security convoys in the restive province, the official said via telephone from provincial capital Maimana.

Taliban militants, who are in control of parts of Faryab province and largely relying on suicide and roadside bombing, have not commented.