KABUL,
June 7 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Four German soldiers
were killed and 29 were injured in a bomb attack on a bus carrying
members of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in
Afghanistan early on Saturday, June 7, German Defense Minister Peter
Struck announced in Berlin.
Afghan
military officials said six people died in all, including one or two
bombers in a taxi that exploded as it drew alongside the bus.
ISAF
said in a statement earlier in the day that three German soldiers had
died in the apparent “suicide” attack, the deadliest to date
against ISAF, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"This
attack has a new and horrible dimension," said the German
minister.
He
said German criminal police would be traveling to Kabul shortly to
investigate the blast, which threw the bus some 10 meters off the road
and completely destroyed the taxi.
But
Struck said there were no indications to date to suggest the attack
was the work of al-Qaeda.
He
also rebuffed suggestions that the peacekeepers had been careless to
travel in a non-armored vehicle.
The
bus was traveling along the main road linking Kabul to the eastern
city of Jalalabad, which is used daily by dozens of ISAF vehicles.
"I
don't think we acted imprudently," he said, rejecting calls by
the head of the German army union, Bernhard Gertz, for German troops
to be pulled out of the troubled Central Asian country.
Seven
of the Germans injured were in serious condition and were to be flown
out urgently to Germany, Struck told a news conference in Berlin.
The
attack was the latest in a series of incidents to blight the
peacekeeping force, which has patrolled Kabul under a United Nations
mandate since the ouster of Taliban in late 2001.
It
was the second violent incident involving German peacekeepers in Kabul
in recent weeks.
