NATO spokesman says 4 US soldiers killed in the south of the country by a roadside bomb

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - NATO says four U.S. service personnel have been killed in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan's volatile south.

NATO spokesman Col. Thomas Collins said a powerful explosion ripped through a NATO convoy Tuesday in southern Kandahar province, the heartland of the insurgent Taliban.

"The convoy struck an IED (improvised explosive devise) in Zhari district this afternoon," he told The Associated Press.

He said there are a number of wounded as well but could not give further details.

It has been a bloody couple of days for international forces in Afghanistan, with three Georgian soldiers killed Monday when a powerful truck bomb exploded at the gate of their outpost in neighboring Helmand province. Also Monday, in northern Kapisa province, a suicide bomber hit a U.S. Special Operation Forces convoy. There were no casualties.