Two US soldiers were killed Tuesday when a bomb planted on the side of a road exploded in eastern Afghanistan, the US-led coalition said, after the Taleban claimed responsibility for the blast.
Another three US soldiers were wounded in a separate suicide car bomb attack Tuesday also in the country's east. The soldiers who were killed were on patrol in Nangarhar province, when a remote-controlled bomb struck their armoured vehicle.
"I can confirm that two US soldiers were killed," said Second Lieutenant Khrysten Darm. Another soldier and an Afghan interpreter were wounded in the blast. The two wounded men were evacuated to a coalition hospital at the main US air base at Bagram, outside the capital Kabul, a coalition statement said.
A man claiming to be a Taleban spokesman, Mohammed Hanif, said the movement had planted the road side bomb in Khogyani district.
The violence includes scores of suicide blasts, which were virtually unheard of in Afghanistan until late September last year. In Tuesday's suicide blast, the three US soldiers were wounded when a man detonated a car bomb near a coalition convoy in eastern Khost province, the coalition said. "None of the injuries appear life-threatening," it said in a statement.