Three American troops were killed in a weekend bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan, the United States military announced on Tuesday.

"Three United States Forces-Afghanistan service members were killed during an improvised explosive device attack in eastern Afghanistan Saturday," a statement said.

It did not give further details on who the soldiers were, where the incident took place or what happened and indicated that the US Department of Defense would release more information later.

The deaths bring to 155 the number of US troops killed in Afghanistan this year, according to an AFP tally based on data published by the independent website iCasualties.org. A total of 218 international troops have died in 2011.

News of the latest fatalities came following the death of eight US soldiers Thursday in two successive blasts in Shorabak district in Kandahar province in the south of the country, one of the worst single death tolls in months.

There are around 90,000 US troops serving in Afghanistan. A 130,000-strong international force is fighting a Taliban-led insurgency which has been running for almost 10 years.

The Taliban announced the start of their spring fighting season at the end of April.

The commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, US General David Petraeus, warned in a memo released Saturday that troops could face tough times ahead.

"It is likely that our enemies will pursue high-profile attacks this summer in an attempt to demonstrate continued capability," he said.

This should be expected because of the "progress" made in "important areas" since last year, he added.

There has been a spike in insurgent attacks against forces loyal to President Hamid Karzai's government in recent days, including the killing of the high-profile police commander of northern Afghanistan on Saturday.

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