Three NATO soldiers were slightly wounded Monday when a suicide bomber attacked a NATO convoy in Kabul by jumping in front of a military vehicle and detonating a bomb.

The attack in eastern Kabul also wounded three Afghan civilians, said Ali Shah Paktiawal, a senior police official.

"I saw an American four-wheel-drive entering Kabul and suddenly a guy who was standing next to a pump station ran toward the vehicle and detonated himself," Sayid Rahman, 22, told the Associated Press.

"That vehicle was damaged and they managed to flee from the area."

Maj. Luke Knittig, a spokesperson for the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, said the troops were taken to a nearby military hospital for treatment. He declined to indicate the nationalities of the injured.

The attack occurred on a road frequently used by troops in the capital. It comes days after another suicide bomber killed 12 people and wounded more than 40 near the Afghan Interior Ministry building in Kabul.

Hillier happy with Afghan mission so far

Meanwhile, Canadian Gen. Rick Hillier left Kandahar on Monday after a visit with the troops to assess the progress of Canada's military mission in Afghanistan.

Hillier said there is much work to be done in Afghanistan but he is pleased with how the mission is proceeding. He said he is also pleased with the morale of the troops.

Just before he left to return to Canada, Hillier told reporters that more needs to be done to create a stable environment in the south so that reconstruction work can begin in earnest.

"We want to get into the reconstruction much more. We want to help rebuild the Afghan army much faster. We want to build the police force, certainly much faster. But you really can't do anything of that without a good solid secure base to start with and that's the part we pay attention to most right now," Hillier said in Kandahar.

Hillier spent a night out with the troops on one of the forward operating bases.

He also attended the ceremony on Sunday in which the remains of Pte. Josh Klukie, 23, of Thunder Bay, were loaded onto a military transport plane to begin the trip home to Canada. Klukie died Friday when he stepped on an anti-tank mine packed with other explosives.

Klukie is the 37th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan since Canada first sent troops there in 2002. Canada has more than 2,000 troops in Afghanistan, with the majority stationed in Kandahar.

With files from the Associated Press