The blast occurred Friday afternoon near the city of Ghazni, 125 kilometers (80 miles) south of the capital Kabul, said Cmdr. Dan Gage, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command.

Of the nine soldiers injured, four were treated at the scene and the others flown by helicopter to a hospital at the main U.S. base at Bagram, north of the capital, Gage said.

Further details were not immediately available.

The blast came just two weeks after the Jan. 30 explosion of an arms dump near Ghazni, which killed eight U.S. soldiers. Investigators are not sure whether the blast was an attack or accident. Either way, it was the most deadly incident involving U.S. troops in Afghanistan since 2001.

Some 109 American soldiers have died since Operation Enduring Freedom was launched in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack in New York and Washington. About two-thirds of those deaths have occurred in Afghanistan, many of them in accidents, with the rest in other countries.

More than 100 people have died in violence in Afghanistan since the start of this year, as a Taliban-led insurgency roils the south and east of the country, casting doubt on plans for national elections this summer.

Also Friday, a remote-controlled mine exploded in eastern Khost province, killing a police officer and a civilian. Five civilians and another policeman were also injured.

That attack came hours after some 20 rockets were fired at the airport in Khost city that houses the third-largest U.S. base in Afghanistan, causing no casualties and drawing retaliatory airstrikes from American forces.

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