By ANTARA News/AFP,
Copenhagen : A Danish soldier serving with NATO-led forces in Afghanistan was killed and three others were wounded when their tank was damaged in a roadside blast, military officials said Friday.
The soldiers were involved in a clash with insurgents when their tank ran over a land mine or other type of explosive, the Danish military high command said in a statement.
The Danish troops had been assisting Afghan soldiers and their US and British advisors who came under attack in the north of troubled Hellmand province in southern Afghanistan.
Defence Minister Soeren Gade expressed “yet again my great respect” for Danish soldiers who “are making a remarkable effort under difficult conditions” to secure “the future of Afghanistan and of Denmark and the rest of the world.”
NATO`s International Security Assistance Force said Friday that one of its soldiers had been killed and two injured in clashes in the southern province of Hellmand on Thursday, without revealing their nationalities.
The British Ministry of Defence said Friday that a British army dog handler and his explosives sniffer dog had been killed in the province on Thursday, while six other soldiers had been injured.
Most NATO troops in Helmand are British but Denmark has more than 550 soldiers in the province under British command.
Since Denmark began sending troops to Afghanistan 15 of its troops have been killed there, one of the highest per capita death tolls among coalition forces.
Nearly 140 foreign soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan this year, most of them in unrest.