Roadside blast kills three Afghan soldiers

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Apr 30 (Reuters) A remote-control roadside bomb killed three Afghan soldiers today in the southern province where 3,500 British troops will soon be based.

Three Afghan soldiers were wounded in the blast in Helmand province, an Afghan army commander, General Rahmatullah Raufi, said.

Violence has intensified in Afghanistan in recent months, and scores of people have been killed in clashes and by roadside bombs and suicide bomb blasts.

Three policemen were killed in a Taliban raid on a post in Helmand yesterday.

British forces are now moving in to the province, which is also Afghanistan's main opium-growing region, as part of the expansion of a NATO peacekeeping force.

The body of a kidnapped Indian engineer was found in another southern province on Sunday. The Taliban said they killed him.

REUTERS CH KP1907