GERMANY:German defence minister Franz Josef Jung has dismissed calls to withdraw the country's troops from Afghanistan after a suicide bomber killed three soldiers and injured five others.
The soldiers were attacked on Saturday morning after they left their armoured vehicle to buy technical equipment at a market in the northern city of Kundus.
"Sadly there is no 100 per cent protection against suicide bombers," said Mr Jung of the worst attack on German troops in four years. "But I assume that the grand coalition will continue not just to back but to clearly support what German troops are doing for our security in foreign missions."
German chancellor Angela Merkel said the "perfidious murders fill us all with disgust and horror". She expressed her "deepest sympathies" to the soldiers' relatives and said it would not prevent Germany from completing its reconstruction mission in northern Afghanistan.
But the deaths have prompted some left-wing politicians to question whether the Bundestag should approve the mandate of 3,000 Bundeswehr soldiers when it comes up for annual renewal in October.
Green Party deputy Jürgen Trittin has called for a review of the mission details.
"Perhaps soldiers should give up foot patrols and only travel in armoured vehicles in the future," he said.
Mr Jung dismissed the suggestion, saying German solders had an important task "to build up the trust of the civilian population and it is thus urgently needed for soldiers to leave protected vehicles".
The Bundeswehr deployment in northern Afghanistan enjoys broad support across the German political spectrum. But that consensus was strained earlier this year when the government agreed to deploy six surveillance planes to patrol southern Afghan skies. Though the mission was strictly reconnaissance, Mr Jung admitted he "cannot and will not" rule out that the aircraft would be involved in active combat if shot at by Taliban rebels.