By DPA
Kabul : Three German soldiers were killed and three wounded while four Afghan civilians were killed and 14 others wounded when a suicide attacker Saturday detonated his explosives-laden vest in northern Afghanistan, police said.
The attack took place in Kundus, when the German soldiers were shopping in Chaiferoshi market, General Noor Mohammad Omarkhail, provincial security chief of Kunduz police, said.
"Three German soldiers were killed, two were wounded and four Afghan shopkeepers were killed while 14 others were wounded when the suicide attacker exploded himself in Chaiferoshi market today at 10.15 a.m.," Omarkhail said.
Omarkhail described the condition of seven of the wounded Afghans as critical.
A spokesperson for NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul who asked not to be identified said, "We are aware of an explosion in Kunduz province and we know there were some ISAF casualties."
The spokesperson said that the casualties included dead and wounded but did not specify the numbers.
However, the German forces in Afghanistan said that three German soldiers were killed and three others were wounded.
It was the biggest suicide attack against German troops in Afghanistan since June 2003 when four German soldiers were killed and 29 wounded.
Apart from Saturday's incident, 18 German soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001. Ten of them were killed by hostile acts while eight died in non-combat incidents.
There are around 3,000 German troops under the banner of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the country, the bulk of them stationed in northern provinces.