Nato's US-led International Security Assistance Force said three of its troops died in an ‘insurgent attack’ in the east but gave no further details in line with policy.

A Western military official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the three soldiers were killed in a suicide attack in Asad Abad, the capital of Kunar province.

Local police chief, Mohammad Aywaz Naziri, told AFP that two insurgents wearing suicide vests blew themselves up as a group of foreign troops walked from their base to the nearby governor's compound.