German Soldier Killed, Nine Injured in Afghan Attacks (Update1)

April 30 (Bloomberg) -- A German soldier was killed and nine injured in two separate attacks in northern Afghanistan’s Kunduz province, where the army is suffering more frequent insurgent assaults.

One soldier died and four were injured in a roadside ambush yesterday, while five more were injured in a suicide bombing, Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung told reporters in Berlin today. The attacks happened as Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was in the Afghan capital, Kabul, where he met with President Hamid Karzai.

“We know that Kunduz has become a problem area, there’s nothing to gloss over there,” Army General Inspector Wolfgang Schneiderhan, the armed forces’ highest-ranking officer, told the same briefing. “It’s become more difficult there than it was four years ago.” While the attacks appear to have been planned in advance, he ruled out a connection to Steinmeier’s surprise visit.

Chancellor Angela Merkel told a NATO summit April 4 that Germany is ready to do its duty in Afghanistan to stem the terrorist threat. Merkel, who went on to tour German military bases during a surprise visit to Afghanistan after the summit, is scheduled to meet for talks with Karzai in Berlin on May 10.

Germany has about 3,500 troops in provinces north of Kabul that have witnessed less Taliban-related violence than in the south. President Barack Obama has ordered 21,000 more troops and military trainers to Afghanistan as part of a new strategy in the region that calls for aid, fighting corruption and a bigger focus on Pakistan.

Talks With Taliban

Asked about the possibility of talks with elements of the Taliban, Jung gave a warning to “those who do not clearly and unambiguously distance themselves from violence and such attacks as they have just carried out.”

“They are terrorists and so must experience our clear resistance,” Jung said.

Vice-President Joe Biden said last month in Brussels that at least 70 percent of the Taliban are mercenaries who could be persuaded to lay down their arms, as he stepped up U.S. calls for outreach to “moderate” elements of the insurgency.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brett Neely in Berlin at bneely3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net