German convoy comes under fire in Afghanistan: Berlin

German convoy comes under fire in Afghanistan: Berlin

(NSI News Source Info) Berlin - September 2, 2008: A German convoy came under fire in Afghanistan on Monday, a defence ministry official said less than a week after a deadly attack on German troops fuelled an anguished debate over the future of the mission. The vehicles encountered handgun fire nine kilometres (six miles) north of the city of Kunduz where the Germans have their base, a defence ministry spokesman told a news conference. "Explosions whose cause was not known were also seen near the patrol," he said, adding that no one was injured. The assault came amid mounting violence in the relatively calm north of Afghanistan. Last Wednesday, an eight-vehicle convoy patrolling the outskirts of Kunduz was hit by a booby trapped bomb, killing a German soldier and injuring three others. Taliban insurgents reportedly claimed the attack. On Sunday, another German patrol was targetted by a bomb west of Kunduz. No one was injured and the vehicles incurred only minor damage. Another deadly incident Friday made major headlines here amid growing opposition to the German deployment in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Afghan and German troops killed two children and a woman by opening fire on cars that failed to stop at a checkpoint. The German defence ministry denied a report in Monday's Financial Times Deutschland newspaper that German troops had failed to follow guidelines. The escalating violence has led left-leaning opposition parties and some Social Democrats, partners in Germany's ruling coalition, to call for Berlin to pull its around 3,300 troops out of the strife-ravaged country. A top official at the defence ministry slammed the campaign as "highly problematic". "If every deadly incident is followed by demands to withdrawal the troops then it weakens the position of NATO and the soldiers on the ground," parliamentary state secretary Christian Schmidt told the Passauer Neue Presse. "The issue is far too serious to become a political tug-of-war."