South Asia News

German, NATO soldiers killed by Afghan bombings

May 25, 2011, 13:25 GMT

Kabul - Two soldiers of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed in roadside bombings in Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday.

One soldier died from a roadside bomb in the northern region Wednesday, the military said in a statement, without revealing his nationality.

But the Green Party in Berlin said the parliamentary defence committee was briefed by the armed forces chief, who said that the blast killed one German soldier and wounded another soldier and an Afghan interpreter.

The soldiers were patrolling in Chardarah district of northern province of Kunduz when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb, Gholam Muhayuddin, the district police chief said.

'There were casualties,' he said, adding that German forces condoned off the blast site and a military helicopter evacuated the victims.

Taliban also attacked a police post in Dashti Archi district of Kunduz on Tuesday night, sparking a four-hour-firefight that left five insurgents killed and two police forces injured, Sheikh Sadruddin, the district chief said.

Germany has around 5,000 troops in northern Afghanistan, which includes Kunduz.

Separately, a further ISAF soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack in the southern region on Tuesday, ISAF said. The military did not disclose the nationality of the victim, nor give a precise location of the incident.

Most foreign troops deployed to the volatile southern provinces are from the United States, Britain and Canada.

At least 190 foreign soldiers have been killed in the conflict so far this year, according to iCasualties.org, an independent website that tracks NATO military fatalities in Afghanistan.

Currently, 140,000 foreign forces are stationed in the country. NATO is tentatively scheduled to withdraw all combat troops by the end of 2014, in a process that the US military would begin in July.

Meanwhile, gun battle between police forces and Taliban militants was ongoing Wednesday in Do-Aab district of north-eastern province of Nuristan, Jamaludin Badr, the provincial governor said.

Taliban militants shortly overran the district on Tuesday night, but government forces retook the area and a fierce fighting was ongoing, he said. 'So far our forces found 13 dead bodies of Taliban in the battlefield,' Badr said.

Taliban militants and members of other insurgent groups are active in Nuristan, where they control at least one district and large swathes of its rural areas.