German troops killed in northern Afghanistan
Suicide bomber kills two German soldiers and five children in northern Afghanistan
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Monday, 20, Oct 2008 02:25
A suicide bomber has killed two German soldiers and five children in northern Afghanistan, local officials claim.
The governor of Kunduz province, Mohammad Omar, confirmed that two other German troops and two children had been injured in the blast on Monday.
A statement from Brigadier General Richard Blanchette, a spokesman for Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said: "Our thoughts are now with the friends and families of those who have died and those that have been injured in today's incident."
"Acts such as this, which offer nothing but violence and death, will not deter us in our commitment to create a better Afghanistan."
Nato said next of kin have been notified.
Elsewhere, it was confirmed that a number of Afghan civilians had been killed in an ISAF airstrike on October 16th in Helmand province.
A statement released today declares: "The airstrike accurately struck the enemy target. It now appears that some civilians may have been killed as a result of that assault. We regret and are deeply saddened by the loss of civilian life."
Afghan national security forces, supported by ISAF, were said to have been ambushed by "enemy forces" and after exhausting all other options called in an airstrike on the compound where militants were firing from.
"The enemy’s indiscriminate use of violence presents the real threat to the Afghan people," the statement continued.
"It is the enemy who are to blame for any loss of civilian life in this incident. The insurgents deliberately fight from civilian areas in an attempt to involve innocents in their actions."