German soldiers killed in Afghanistan

A roadside bomb killed a German soldier and injured five others in Afghanistan on Thursday, the German Federal Defense Force said.

A German Marder tank was struck by a hidden improvised explosive device while on patrol in Baghlan, about 35 kilometers south of Kunduz, a spokesman for the German Federal Defense Force said in Potsdam.

The tank, which carried a crew of six German soldiers, was destroyed and the injured were tranferred by helicopter to a German base in Kunduz, the spokesman said.

The death was Germany's fourth in Afghanistan in the past 10 days after a soldier was killed in an attack while on patrol last Wednesday.

Gen. Markus Kneip, commander of German forces in Afghanistan, was wounded Saturday in a suicide bombing at the Takhar governor's office that killed two German soldiers and five others.

Germany has 5,000 troops in Afghanistan, the third largest foreign contingent there.

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