A Swedish soldier with the NATO-led mission in northern Afghanistan died after a bomb attack yesterday, the first Swedish peacekeeper to be killed in the country.
The Swedish Defence Ministry said the man was one of four wounded when a remote-controlled bomb struck one vehicle in a convoy of five driving back from a sports event on the outskirts of the city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
A mine planted during the sports event caused the blast, an Afghan police spokesman said.
Three ISAF soldiers have been killed in separate incidents during the past month, including a suicide attack in Kabul. One British peacekeeper was killed and several ISAF soldiers hurt when gunmen fired on their vehicle inside Mazar city last month.
About 9,000 ISAF soldiers are in Afghanistan, charged with keeping the peace after US-led troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001.
The Swedish soldier died in a hospital in Kabul. One of the other wounded troops remained in a serious condition, the army said. The two other soldiers, one of whose injuries was light, were being treated in a hospital in Termez in Uzbekistan.
The incident comes amid rising attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan where the militants are most active.
More than 1,100 people have been killed in militant-related violence in Afghanistan this year. Most were militants but the dead include nearly 60 US soldiers.