Maj. Gen. Deborah Ashenhurst, Ohio’s adjutant general in charge of the state’s National Guard, did not immediately release the names of the dead or injured.
The 37th Infantry Brigade, based in Columbus, includes four battalions in Ohio and two in Michigan.
The three soldiers who died were all from Franklin County, which includes Columbus and its suburbs, the Columbus Dispatch reported. All eight are from Ohio, according to the guard.
The Defense Department, family members and officials in the Columbus suburb of Grove City identified one of the dead as Sgt. 1st Class Shawn Hannon, 44, a 1986 graduate of Grove City High School. Hannon, a lawyer, had served as chief legal counsel for the Ohio Department of Veterans Services in Columbus.
“Shawn felt it was a privilege to serve his country and did so honorably for almost 20 years. He was proud to be a soldier and all who loved him knew it,” his family said in a statement released to media.
Veterans services department spokesman Mike McKinney told the Dispatch, "We're just stunned, upset. He was a fantastic guy, a wonderful advocate for Ohio’s veterans.”
Grove City officials ordered flags at City Hall and its safety building to half-staff, a spokeswoman said. Hannon took the state job early last year after working several years for the Columbus law firm of Yavitch & Palmer.
“He was one of the most ethical, upstanding and principled guys I ever met. Everybody respected him, everyone loved him,” said partner Steve Palmer. “If anybody needed help, he was the first one there.”
Hannon was a graduate of the Capital University School of Law. He and his wife, Jamie, have a 9-month-old son, Evan.
The second was Capt. Nicholas Rozanski, 36, of Dublin. He had been a member of the Ohio National Guard since 2003 and this was his third deployment, said his wife, Jennifer Rozanski.
Mrs. Rozanski said her husband worked as a civilian at the Defense Logistics Agency in Whitehall and that the couple have two young daughters.
The third Ohio casualty was Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey J. Rieck, 45, of Upper Arlington, according to the Defense Department. Rieck's family couldn't be reached at this time. Records show that he had a 15-year-old son, according to the Dispatch.
James Sims, spokesman for the guard, late Thursday night identified the wounded but noted he could not reveal the nature of their wounds. The wounded are:
*Pvt. 1st Class Jacob Williams of Summersville, in Union County, Ohio;
*Corp. Eberett Haworth of Olmsted Twp., in Cuyahoga County;
*Specialist Austin Weigle, Bryan, in upper northwest Ohio;
*1st Lt. Christopher Rosebrock, Hicksville, also in upper northwest Ohio.
According to The Associated Press, a suicide bomber was on a motorcycle when the blast occurred. It killed at least 13 people at a park in what had been a relatively peaceful area of northern Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
The brigade deployed late in 2011 and early this year to train Afghan security forces and help with counter-insurgency operations, officials said.
The deployment of 3,600 troops was the largest mobilization for the 37th since at least the Korean War, according to the Ohio National Guard.
In 2005, Lima Company, a Columbus-based Marine Reserve unit, lost 22 Marines and a Navy corpsman in Iraq, including nine in one bombing. Fifteen of those 23 victims were from Ohio.
Sixty Ohioans had died in Afghanistan prior to Wednesday’s bombing, according to an Associated Press casualty database.
Pentagon figures show 70 Ohioans have died in operations in Afghanistan and related operations through April 2. The AP reported that total as 69. The reason for the difference was unclear.
More than 1,900 Americans have died in Afghanistan or related operations, according to the Pentagon.