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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 27 December 2005

AFGHANISTAN: Roadside bomb wounds two NATO peacekeepers in north

KABUL, 27 Dec 2005 (IRIN) - A roadside bomb on Monday injured two soldiers serving with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and two civilians in northern Afghanistan, ISAF said in the capital Kabul.

"At around 11:15 Monday, a two-vehicle ISAF convoy was involved in an explosion in Baghlan province,” Maj Andrew Elmes, an ISAF spokesman said.

“Four ISAF members were involved, of whom two have been injured and one of the two vehicles was heavily damaged,” Elmes noted.

The two injured ISAF soldiers were from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. One was lightly injured and the other has been evacuated out of the country for better treatment, Elmes explained.

While confirming the attack, Dad Mohammad Rasa, a press officer for Afghan interior ministry said two civilians were also wounded in the blast. He blamed the attack on enemies of the country.

“An investigation is ongoing in the area, but nobody has been arrested in this connection yet,” Rasa said.

About 11,000 ISAF troops stayed in Afghanistan following the collapse of the Taliban in late 2001 for the peacekeeping mission, while NATO is to raise the force to some 15,000 troops from early next year.

Remnants of the Taliban regime, which was toppled by a US-led military campaign in 2001 after refusing to hand over Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, continue to carry out attacks.

Last week three Italian soldiers and two civilians were wounded when a suspected suicide car bomb went off near a troop convoy in the western city of Herat. The ousted Taliban later claimed to be behind the attack.

ISAF’s role is to assist the government in Afghanistan and the international community in maintaining security within the force’s area of operations. ISAF supports Kabul in expanding its authority to the rest of the country, and in providing a safe and secure environment conducive to free and fair elections, the spread of the rule of law, and the reconstruction of the country.

[ENDS]

This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but May not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2005