Three NATO occupation troops were killed in a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan

Three NATO occupation troops were killed in a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan, the military said Wednesday.

A statement said the deaths occurred Tuesday, but provided no further details about the incident or the nationalities of the troops.

The deaths bring the total of foreign occupation troops killed in Afghanistan so far this year to 56 in comparison to a 711 death last year, according to an AFP tally based on figures from independent website iCasualties.org.

On Tuesday, President Hamid Karzai called on NATO to disband an irregular security force operating in northern provinces, saying it had been set up "unilaterally" without coordination with the Afghan government. NATO said Wednesday that all such security programs are being disbanded or shifted to Afghan government control.

Human rights groups warn that US-funded local armed groups sometimes used to fill the void in security have been linked to abuses, violence and extortion.