At least three soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan have been wounded in a bomb attack on a convoy in the east of the country, the U.S. military said Saturday.
The bomb detonated in the middle of the convoy about 5 miles south of the town of Asadabad in Kunar province Friday afternoon, Lt. Col. Douglas Lefforge told a news briefing.
"The three soldiers were medically evacuated to Bagram yesterday and are in stable condition," he said, referring to the U.S. headquarters in Afghanistan where he spoke.
Lefforge said he could not provide the soldiers' nationalities.
Also Friday, eight Afghan government soldiers were killed in the southeastern province of Khost in an attack by suspected Taliban guerrillas.
About 11,500 U.S.-led coalition troops are in Afghanistan pursuing the former Taliban regime and their allies in the al Qaeda network that is blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
About 9,000 of the coalition troops are American. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, two rockets landed near a U.S. fire base at Spin Boldak, in the southern province of Kandahar on the border with Pakistan, Friday night.
Lefforge said the attack caused no casualties.
U.S.-led coalition forces have come under repeated but generally ineffective bomb and rocket attacks since the overthrow of Taliban in late 2001.
**PHOTO CAPITON***
An Afghan farmer carries a calf on his back in Bagram valley, near the coalition joint task force base, 50 kms (31 miles) north of Kabul, June 29, 2003. REUTERS/Arko Datta