A suicide car-bomber attacked a military convoy in the Afghan city of Kandahar today, killing three Afghan civilians.
"I can confirm that there was a blast in the vicinity of a coalition convoy," Colonel Jerry O'Hara, spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, said. "Initial report says there was no damage to equipment or to the coalition."
The Taliban, Afghanistan's former rulers who are fighting an insurgency against US-led forces that overthrew them, claimed responsibility for the blast in their former stronghold.
"Taliban killed four US soldiers in a suicide car bomb attack in Kandahar today," Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf claimed.
However, US military spokesman O'Hara said he had no information on a report, by Kandahar governor Assadullah Khalid, that three American soldiers had been slightly injured in the attack.
"Three civilians have been killed in this suicide incident," Khalid said. Four Afghan bystanders were wounded, he added.