By DPA
Kabul : Two Italian soldiers captured at the weekend in western Afghanistan were freed Monday in a NATO raid but both were wounded, one seriously, the Italian embassy in Kabul said.
“It is not clear whether they were injured during the operation or before that,” a senior diplomat at the embassy said, adding that the two were receiving treatment.
He said the operation was conducted early Monday and the soldiers were freed after fighting. The source said it was not yet clear whether the people who were holding the troops had suffered any casualties.
Two Afghans – a translator and a driver – were also taken with the troops in Herat province near the border with Iran but they were freed Sunday.
The soldiers were among the 2,290-strong Italian contingent of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Their capture was the first of ISAF forces although kidnappings of civilian foreign nationals have risen recently, most notably a group of 23 Christian aid workers from South Korea. Two of the aid workers were killed shortly after their July abduction in eastern Afghanistan, but the remaining hostages were freed last month.
State-run Italian television said in reports citing the Defence Ministry in Rome that the NATO operation took place in Farah province, just south of Herat.
There was confusion when exactly the Italian soldiers and two Afghans were captured. The embassy said it was early Sunday, but local police said Saturday.
They were seen passing a police checkpoint and then had disappeared.