Three British soldiers wounded by Afghan blast

LONDON, Apr 11 (Reuters) Three British soldiers have been wounded, two of them seriously, by a roadside explosion in Afghanistan, the Defence Ministry said today.

The three were on patrol in the southern province of Helmand when the explosion hit their Land Rover yesterday, and were flown to hospital for treatment, a ministry spokesman said.

''It is suspected that the explosion was caused either by an improvised explosive device or by a landmine,'' the spokesman said.

''Until we establish (the cause) we can't say whether it was a hostile action or whether it was unexploded ordnance.'' ''One of the injured is walking wounded. Regrettably, the other two soldiers received serious injuries and continue to receive treatment,'' he said.

Some 3,300 British troops arrived in southern Afghanistan in February as part of an expansion of a NATO peacekeeping mission.

The Taliban, fighting since their overthrow in 2001 to force out foreign troops and topple the West-backed government, have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks carried out across the country in recent weeks.

Last Friday, a suicide car bomber rammed a vehicle leaving a British military base in Lashkar Ghar, capital of Helmand, in the first suicide attack on British forces stationed in the volatile south. Two British soldiers were wounded.

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