Roadside bomb kills 3 NATO troops in Afghanistan

Kabul, June 20 (Reuters) A roadside bomb hit a NATO vehicle in southern Afghanistan today, killing three soldiers, the alliance said.

The three soldiers were Canadians, a senior Canadian military official said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast which a spokesman for the insurgents said was in Helmand province. They had earlier claimed 10 NATO soldiers had died in a roadside blast, but frequently inflate their successes.

Earlier, NATO did not give the location of the attack or the nationality of the victims in line with a policy of letting relevant national authorities release the news.

Troops from various NATO countries operate in the Afghan south, most from Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States.

In a separate incident, a roadside bomb killed a district police chief in southeastern Khost province. The Taliban claimed responsibility for that blast too.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan in recent months after a traditional winter lull, with foreign forces launching attacks against Taliban strongholds in the south and east and the guerrillas hitting back with roadside and suicide bombings.

The latest NATO death brings to 606 the number of foreign troops killed in action in Afghanistan since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Some 52 foreign soldiers have been killed in fighting so far this year.

More than 4,000 people were killed in fighting in 2006, a quarter of them civilians and about 170 of them foreign soldiers.

REUTERS RS RAI2031