Female Hungarian soldier killed in attack in Afghanistan (Roundup)

Aug 23, 2010, 15:19 GMT

Budapest - A female Hungarian soldier was killed and three other military personnel were wounded in an attack overnight Monday in northern Afghanistan, Hungary's Defence Ministry disclosed.

One of the wounded soldiers, a female military doctor, was in critical condition after the attack on a convoy travelling a road near Mazar-e-Sharif, the ministry said.

The convoy was on its way from an ISAF camp to Mazer-e-Sharif when first there was an explosion and then the convoy came under fire from several sides, the ministry said.

The Hungarian soldiers were part of a reconstruction unit, and were soon to wind up their tour of duty, it said. Hungary has been participating in the Afghan reconstruction effort since 2006.

The ministry stressed that the attack was not an isolated incident. At the time, fighting had been going on between international soldiers, including German forces, and Afghan rebels along a one- kilometre-long front.

The ministry account follows a military statement out of Kabul in which a NATO soldier in the north of Afghanistan was reported killed in a bomb attack. The nationality of the soldier was not disclosed.