Kabul - Three NATO-led soldiers were killed on Tuesday in a roadside bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan, the military said.

The soldiers were part of more than 50,000 NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) that have been deployed to Afghanistan from 40 nations following the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

ISAF did not reveal the nationalities of the dead soldiers, nor did it say where in the eastern region the incident took place. Most of the forces operating in the eastern region under the alliance's command are from the US.

Taliban militants, who recently began to rely mostly on use of roadside bomb attacks as part of their insurgency, have not commented on the incident yet.

Taliban-led attacks have been on the rise steadily since late 2004 after the militants made a comeback and turned the eastern and southern regions as their main hotbed against the Western-backed government.

More than 4,000 people - mostly insurgents, but including more than 200 international forces and hundreds of Afghan forces - have been killed so far this year, according to figures provided by Afghan and international military sources. (dpa)