KABUL (Reuters) - Three soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition were killed in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday when their convoy hit a roadside bomb and then came under small-arms fire by insurgents, the U.S. military said.
One Afghan soldier was also wounded in the attack in Kapisa province, northeast of the capital Kabul, the military said in a statement.
It gave no further details. An earlier statement said Afghan and coalition troops had been ambushed during an operation in Kapisa's Yakdan valley. The troops called in air support and two militants were killed in the clash, the earlier statement said.
Violence has grown in Afghanistan even as the number of foreign troops has increased to almost 80,000 this year, with the period from late 2007 the worst since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban's Islamist government in late 2001.
Kapisa is to the east of Bagram air base, the main base for foreign forces in Afghanistan. Taliban fighters and other insurgents are active in the province.
(Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Paul Tait)
