German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives at the German base in Masar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan Friday morning. (AFP)
AFP, Berlin -
Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere
have arrived in Afghanistan for a surprise visit, a German government
spokesman said early Friday.
Merkel and de Maiziere went to the German forces’ headquarters in the
northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the spokesman said, without giving
details of the visit. It comes six days after the death of a German
soldier, part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF) in Afghanistan.
A German soldier was killed and another wounded in an attack by insurgents in northern Afghanistan on Saturday.
German special forces had been supporting an Afghan operation near the
northern city of Baghlan when insurgents opened fire on the Afghan and
NATO International Security Assistance Force troops, according to an
army statement posted on its Internet site Sunday.
It added that no information was available about losses among the Afghan
forces, but said “presumably” several insurgents had been killed.
It was the first German fatality during two years of working within ISAF.
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