Kabul, Afghanistan ? Three Canadian soldiers were injured in the Afghan capital early today, a spokesman said, in what Afghan police officials said was a suicide attack.

Nine civilians in the area were also hurt and were being treated at a hospital, said Gen. Haroon Asisi, a commander in the Afghan Interior Ministry.

Maj. Kevin Arata, a spokesman for the NATO-led security force, confirmed three Canadians were hurt. “We don’t know the extent of their injuries yet or what caused them,” he said.

Ali Jan Askaryar, head of police in the western district of Kabul where the blast occurred, said the Canadians were part of a three-vehicle patrol when they were attacked.

“There was a bump in the road, and when they slowed down to pass over it, a terrorist jumped on one of the vehicles and blew himself up,” Askaryar said.

A witness, Hussein Agha, said body parts were strewn on the road after the attack that happened at about 8:30 a.m. local time.

“There were three vehicles, two of them had passed by and he targeted the last one,” Agha said of the bomber.

International troops and local police cordoned off the scene of the attack. From nearby, an open-backed military jeep that appeared badly burnt with its windows blown out was visible standing in a patch of blackened road, a white sheet lying next to it. A civilian car also appeared to have been badly burnt in the blast.

Although there have been persistent, almost daily attacks in Afghanistan by remnants of the hard-line Taliban and al-Qaida, suicide attacks aren’t a commonly used tactic by insurgent forces. Violence in the country — more than two years after the Taliban were removed from power by a U.S.-led force — has killed more than 60 people in the past three weeks.