THE HAGUE (AFP) - A 21-year-old Dutch soldier with the NATO-led deployment confronting Taliban and other extremists in southern Afghanistan was killed in a bomb strike, the Dutch army said.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had earlier announced that one NATO soldier died and two were wounded in an incident caused by an improvised explosive device (IED).
Two other Dutch ISAF soldiers were hurt in the attack and they are being treated on the Dutch base Tarin Kowt, Dutch army chief Dick Berlijn told a press conference.
The new death takes to 192 the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year, around the same toll for the whole of 2006. Most of them have been killed in hostile action, with a Taliban-led insurgency intensifying.
Corporal Ronald Groen is the 12th Dutch soldier killed in Afghanistan, either accidentally or in combat.
At present, 1,649 Dutch soldiers are deployed in Afghanistan's southern Uruzgan province as part of ISAF.
A soldier serving with the separate US-led coalition was killed with an Afghan trooper in Uruzgan on Friday, NATO said. It has yet to announce the foreign soldier's nationality.
An Australian soldier was also seriously wounded Friday while trying to defuse an IED, the Australian Department of Defence said on its website.
IEDs are among the main threats for the soldiers, with the Taliban making heavy use of suicide bombings and other bomb strikes in its campaign to drive out the international forces.
"Despite the criminal and indiscriminate use of IED tactics by the Taliban insurgents, ISAF will continue to move forward to improve and strengthen the security conditions in Afghanistan," spokesman Squadron Leader Mat Best said in a statement announcing the latest fatality.
There are more than 55,000 foreign soldiers in ISAF and the coalition fighting a resurgent Taliban alongside the understrength Afghan forces.
http://military-world.net/n/afghanistan_news/12.html
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had earlier announced that one NATO soldier died and two were wounded in an incident caused by an improvised explosive device (IED).
Two other Dutch ISAF soldiers were hurt in the attack and they are being treated on the Dutch base Tarin Kowt, Dutch army chief Dick Berlijn told a press conference.
The new death takes to 192 the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year, around the same toll for the whole of 2006. Most of them have been killed in hostile action, with a Taliban-led insurgency intensifying.
Corporal Ronald Groen is the 12th Dutch soldier killed in Afghanistan, either accidentally or in combat.
At present, 1,649 Dutch soldiers are deployed in Afghanistan's southern Uruzgan province as part of ISAF.
A soldier serving with the separate US-led coalition was killed with an Afghan trooper in Uruzgan on Friday, NATO said. It has yet to announce the foreign soldier's nationality.
An Australian soldier was also seriously wounded Friday while trying to defuse an IED, the Australian Department of Defence said on its website.
IEDs are among the main threats for the soldiers, with the Taliban making heavy use of suicide bombings and other bomb strikes in its campaign to drive out the international forces.
"Despite the criminal and indiscriminate use of IED tactics by the Taliban insurgents, ISAF will continue to move forward to improve and strengthen the security conditions in Afghanistan," spokesman Squadron Leader Mat Best said in a statement announcing the latest fatality.
There are more than 55,000 foreign soldiers in ISAF and the coalition fighting a resurgent Taliban alongside the understrength Afghan forces.
http://military-world.net/n/afghanistan_news/12.html