A TALIBAN suicide bomber attacked a Nato military convoy on the outskirts of the Afghan capital Kabul today, killing at least eight people and wounding more than 50.

The attack came on the day that the bodies of three more British soldiers killed in the conflict arrived in Oxford after being repatriated from Afghanistan.

Royal British Legion standard bearers and representatives of veterans’ organisations gathered at the Headley Way entrance to the John Radcliffe Hospital, in Headington, to salute the fallen men as the cortege arrived from RAF Lyneham, in Wiltshire.

Lance Bombardier Matthew Hatton, 23, of 40 Regiment Royal Artillery, from Haxby, in North Yorkshire, was caught by a makeshift bomb in Helmand on Thursday.

Rifleman Daniel Wild, 19, from County Durham, and Captain Mark Hale, 42, from Bournemouth, went to his aid but were killed by a second blast.

Post-mortems on the dead soldiers will be carried out at the hospital before they are released for burial.

The suicide bomb attack in Kabul came two days before the country’s presidential election, which the Taliban has vowed to disrupt.

Two Afghans working for the United Nations were reported to be among the dead.

The bomber used a car to strike the convoy as it travelled along a road near a British military base in the eastern outskirts of the city.

Nato said initial reports indicated that troops serving in its force were killed and wounded in the blast but gave no further details.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

British troops were sent to guard the scene as rescue workers rushed the wounded to hospitals.

About a dozen private vehicles were destroyed in the explosion.

People used their hands to dig through the rubble of damaged buildings. Families carried the wounded away from the scene.

In eastern Afghanistan two US troops were killed and three wounded in a bomb attack yesterday.

Nato and Afghan security forces are on high alert this week because of tomorrow’s election. President Hamid Karzai is favoured to win but faces a strong challenge from his former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.

The Ministry of Defence yesterday named three British soldiers killed in action in Helmand province on Sunday.

Fusiliers Simon Annis, 22, from Salford, Greater Manchester, and Louis Carter, 18, from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, were part of a team trying to carry Lance Corporal James Fullarton, 24, from Coventry, to safety near Sangin when a explosion killed all three.

Their bodies are expected to be brought back to Britain in the next few days.