A US military transport plane has crashed in eastern Afghanistan, killing three of the 10 people on board. The plane crashed at 2130 local time (1700 GMT) during take-off from an airbase about 55 kilometres (35 miles) southwest of Gardez in Paktia province. The cause of the crash is unknown, but it did not appear to have been caused by hostile fire, the military said. "Seven of the 10 passengers have been transferred to a medical facility at Kandahar for treatment," the US Central Command said in a statement from its headquarters in Florida. The statement said injuries were minor, ranging from a broken leg to cuts and bruises.