GHAZNI PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Virginia Army National Guardsmen will hold a memorial service today for two of their colleagues killed Saturday when a remote-controlled bomb struck their Humvee while they patrolled a southern part of the province.

    The two soldiers were members of the anti-armor section of the Winchester-based Headquarters Company of the 3rd Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division. Their names would not be released until day at the earliest, a Defense Department spokesman said Sunday.

    "These guys were good soldiers," said Sgt. 1st Class Jim Shepard, who led the patrol. "They were our brothers."

    Another Headquarters Company soldier sustained rib injuries in the attack but was back on duty Sunday.

    An Afghan interpreter also was killed. His name was unavailable.

    As the guardsmen grieved at Camp Ghazni and Camp Tiger - outposts located about 140 miles southwest of Kabul, the Afghan capital - back in the Shenandoah Valley, 3rd Battalion families gathered privately Sunday to support and console one another.

    "The families are being notified and a support group is working with families up at the armory" in Winchester, said Lt. Col. William Phillips in Staunton, where the 29th Division's 1st, or "Stonewall" Brigade is based.

    The four men were in the lead vehicle of a convoy patrolling an area where Islamic extremists have increased attacks in an effort to disrupt Afghanistan's landmark elections and reconstruction. Violence has intensified with the approach of the election - a vote for president on Oct. 9, which U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai is widely expected to win - and the past week has been particularly bloodsoaked.

    Two anti-tank mines were detonated by remote control by someone near the site, U.S. officials said.

    The Taliban on Sunday claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had killed six U.S. soldiers.

    The Afghan National Army and Ghazni police reportedly detained four men for questioning in the attack.

    U.S. forces on Sunday transported the destroyed Humvee back to Camp Ghazni, where most of the 3rd Battalion is stationed.

    A memorial service was scheduled for today at Camp Ghazni for the soldiers, both of whom were longtime members of the 3rd Battalion.

    A U.S. Army combat stress team and the 3rd Battalion chaplain offered counseling to other soldiers in the 570-man unit, which includes more than 200 soldiers from Southwest Virginia, many reassigned from the Roanoke-based 1st Battalion.

    Soldiers in Bedford-based Company C, which has the largest concentration of Southwest Virginians, narrowly avoided a similar bomb attack Tuesday when villagers directed Afghan police to a spot in the road where they'd seen suspicious activity overnight. The police found three roadside bombs there just before a convoy of Company C soldiers passed through from nearby Camp Tiger.

    Saturday's deaths bring to 58 the number of American soldiers killed in action since U.S. forces entered Afghanistan in 2001 to drive the Taliban from power and attack its al-Qaida allies.

    With accidents and deaths elsewhere, more than 130 American soldiers have died since Operation Enduring Freedom was launched in response to the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.