The convoy was attacked Saturday on the outskirts of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Tucker Mansager told a news conference in Kabul.

"An explosive device was detonated alongside the convoy resulting in injuries to the marines," he said.

One of the three was seriously injured in the ambush near Daylanor village.

All three were evacuated to the US-led coalition's southern headquarters in Kandahar Air Base, he said.

The attack comes weeks after some 2,000 US marines arrived in Afghanistan to bolster the US-led force's campaign to stamp out Taliban and al-Qaeda militants engaged in a guerrilla insurgency against government and foreign troops.

The coalition has been conducting a major operation to hunt and kill Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, since early March.

Mansager did not say if the injured troops were from the newly-arrived US marines.

He said the new contingent had "been in some minor contact with the enemy."

Mansager said a series of attacks and bomb blasts over the past few weeks in southern Afghanistan were to be expected as the Taliban traditionally step up their attacks in the warmer months.

The last US soldier to die in Afghanistan was former football star Pat Tillman who was killed Thursday in an ambush in southeastern Khost province.

His death brought to 110 the number of US soldiers killed in Afghanistan since late 2001 in combat and accidents.

Tillman turned down a multi-million dollar contract to become a 18,000-dollar a year Army Ranger after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The US-led coalition force, now numbering around 15,500 soldiers is hunting militant holdouts, mainly along the porous Afghan-Pakistani border.

WAR.WIRE