Three German soldiers killed in Afghanistan

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

AFP - Wednesday, June 24KABUL (AFP) - - Three German soldiers were killed in Afghanistan Tuesday when their armoured vehicle was in an accident as they left a firefight with insurgents, NATO and Afghan officials said.
The soldiers had come under attack near the northern town of Kunduz while they were on an operation with Afghan police and intelligence agents, the provincial governor said.
They had been ambushed by Taliban but the exchange of fire caused no casualties, said the governor, Mohammad Omar.
On leaving the area, a German armoured vehicle had become stuck in a stream and could not be extracted, he said, without making it clear how the soldiers had died.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), under which about 3,700 German troops serve, also said the troops had died in an accident.
"They were involved in an incident with insurgents but the cause of death was after that," ISAF spokesman Lieutenant Commander Chris Hall told AFP.
"They had left the scene and their vehicle was involved in a rollover and they died."
An ISAF statement said separately they were killed in a "vehicle accident".
German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said in a statement released in Berlin that the soldiers were conducting a joint operation with Afghan forces when they came under attack at about midday from handguns and anti-tank fire.
The men fired back and requested air support and reinforcements, the defence ministry said, adding that the operation was ongoing.
A spokesman for the radical insurgent Taliban told AFP the militia was responsible for deaths and claimed that several German soldiers were killed and two vehicles were destroyed.
The group often exaggerates the outcome of incidents.
The German contribution to ISAF is the third largest after the United States and Britain.
Most of the troops are based in Mazar-i-Sharif and Kunduz, perhaps the most volatile part of northern Afghanistan which has seen a series of Taliban attacks in recent weeks.
Since 2002, 35 German troops have died in Afghanistan and the mission is highly unpopular in Germany. It is set to be an issue in the campaign for general elections on September 27.
The deterioration in security in the north has prompted Chancellor Angela Merkel's government in 2008 to boost the number of German troops to up to 4,400 ahead of Afghanistan's presidential elections in August.
Before Tuesday's accident, about 149 international soldiers had lost their lives in Afghanistan this year, according to the icasualties.org site that monitors the conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Most of the troops killed in attacks die in insurgent bombings, military officials say.
The insurgents have stepped up their use of bombs in recent weeks with deadly roadside blasts and suicide attacks reported nearly every day.