Three British soldiers killed in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb

Three NATO troops killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan were British, officials said Wednesday. The three soldiers from the Royal Highland Fusiliers died on Tuesday when their vehicle was hit on a routine patrol in the district of Nahr-e Saraj, part of the southern province Helmand.

"Their deaths come as a great loss to all those serving in Task Force Helmand," army spokesman Major Richard Morgan said in a statement from London.

The British defence ministry said that security in Helmand, a hotbed of the Taliban insurgency, was improving but that it remained a risky and dangerous environment for British troops.