KABUL — Three Georgian soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan on Monday when insurgents detonated a vehicle laden with explosives, a senior Western military official and NATO said.

The deaths take the number of troops killed in Afghanistan from the former Soviet, non-NATO country to 22. With more than 1,500 soldiers serving in Helmand province, Georgia has the largest non-NATO combat troop commitment in Afghanistan.

Georgian media reports quoted Georgian Defense Minister Irakly Alasania as saying that a suicide bomber drove a truck full of explosives into their base in Helmand.

"Two Georgians died on the spot, a third died of wounds," a senior Western military official in Kabul said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

(Reuters)