PARIS - Three French soldiers were killed in a lightning storm during an operation targeting Taliban bomb squads in Afghanistan, the French military said on Sunday.

One man was killed by lightning and two others drowned, said Admiral Christophe Prazuck, spokesman for the French armed forces general staff.

They were part of a 250-troop operation hunting fighters responsible for planting roadside bombs in the Afghanya Valley east of Kabul, the spokesman said.

The operation, taking place by night in Kapisa Province some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Kabul, was suspended after a first soldier was struck dead by lightning, according to Prazuck.

Another soldier was swept away by a flooding river while medics attended to the lighting victim, and a third was carried off as he tried to rescue his comrade.

"The pair were found drowned at dawn," said Prazuck.

The victims were a flight sergeant and a corporal of the 13th parachutist regiment, and an airman of the 3rd marine infantry regiment.

All three were stationed at the Nijrab forward operating base in Kapisa province, where their bodies were evacuated by helicopter.

President Nicolas Sarkozy's office issued a statement saying the head of state "shares in the pain of the families and their loved ones. He offers them his sad condolences."

France has now lost 34 soldiers in Afghanistan, where it has 2,900 French troops in the NATO-led coalition battling Taliban guerrillas and training Afghanistan's national security forces.

This year has been the deadliest for foreign troops in Afghanistan since US forces ousted the Taliban from Kabul following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.