Posted on 11/26/2005 3:35:17 AM PST by knighthawk
One of four Swedish peacekeepers wounded in a bomb explosion in Afghanistan has died of his injuries, the Swedish military said late on Friday.
The four Swedish troops, two of whom were said to be seriously injured in Friday's explosion in Mazar-i-Sharif, were from the NATO-led ISAF, which was set up in 2001, and were part of a British provincial reconstruction team.
"Shortly after midnight local time (2100 Stockholm time) ISAF's military hospital in Kabul announced that one of the two seriously injured Swedes had died," the statement said.
"The soldier was seriously injured in a bomb attack in Mazar-i-Sharif around lunchtime, Swedish time, Friday," it said. The identity of the peacekeeper was not given.
The explosion, caused by a remote controlled bomb, happened as the truck in which the peacekeepers were travelling passed as part of a four-vehicle patrol.
It took place near the centre of the city, where a British ISAF soldier was killed in an ambush nearly a month ago.
The second Swedish soldier remains in a serious condition in the hospital, while the other two injured are being treated in a hospital in neighbouring Uzbekistan, the statement said.
ISAF, made up of more than 8,000 troops from 36 countries, has been in Afghanistan since the former hardline Taliban government was toppled in a US-led invasion in late 2001. It came under NATO command in 2003.
The British soldier killed on October 29 was shot in an ambush on his convoy near the city's famous Blue Mosque. Five other people in the convoy were hurt.
Prior to that, attacks on ISAF peacekeepers working in northern and western Afghanistan have been rare. In the past two weeks though two ISAF soldiers have been killed in and around the capital.
A Portuguese soldier was killed on the outskirts of Kabul on November 18 when a bomb struck an ISAF vehicle. He was the 56th ISAF soldier to be killed in Afghanistan.
On November 14 a German soldier was killed in twin suicide bomb blasts targeted at ISAF vehicles. Six Afghans were also killed.
Two days later three civilians were killed in the volatile southern city of Kandahar in a suicide attack on a US-Afghan military convoy.
The suicide attacks were claimed by militants loyal to the Taliban government that was toppled in November 2001 after they did not hand over Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
ISAF troops are based mainly in Kabul and the northern and western parts of Afghanistan, helping to maintain security and working on civilian and military Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT).
A separate US-led coalition of nearly 20,000 troops, most of them American, is based mainly in the more volatile south and east, the focus of attacks by Taliban and other insurgents.
Plans are under way to push ISAF troops into southern Afghanistan by next year, partly taking over from the US-led coalition hunting Taliban and other Islamic militants, including Bin Laden.
A Taliban-led insurgency against the new US-backed government has been the deadliest this year with nearly 1,500 people killed, most of them militants slain in clashes with security forces.
There are about 100 troops from Sweden with ISAF. The Swedish foreign ministry said this month it wanted to double its contingent and take over the Mazar-i-Sharif PRT, currently being run by Britain, in March 2006.
This is sad, as is all loss of life and limb in the WOT. My grandfather came from Sweden.
It will be interesting, not trying to be morbid, to see the reaction of the Swedish people to this soldier's death. Will it be viewed as a sacrifice, either personal, national, or both. Or will it be viewed as simply another wasted life, another victim of the pro-big-oil and/or pro-Israel cabal(s).
I'm sorry for the family of the lost soldier. No one deserves that kind of news. Perhaps if the Swedish government had deployed a large enough forces to actually provide some amount of security without relying on other groups this might have been prevented? Who can say...
Ping
Any Trooper is a Troop...moreso when hurt or lost in Faithful Service.
Sven perhaps being a friendly Nordic translation for Son...I'll say this Troop is my Son...same for any Tommy, Mac, Joe or for that matter Achmed.
After snoopin' about for a good while, this is my first Post and for the record, screen name is simply my nickname from L/Cpl daze Down South...needless to say, it sure brought about a moment or too..
Hello Marine. Let me be the first (possibly) to welcome you to FR.
Marines have been my heroes since I first read Guadalcanal Diary, over forty years ago. I subsequently read many, many more books about Marine actions in the South Pacific.
I have the utmost respect for the military, though not for their civilian masters. With politicians, skunks in the woodpile are the rule rather than the exception.
My nephew is currently attached to the 101st in Iraq. My son is a relatively new infantry officer in the regular Army. He has not yet made the journey to the Middle East, but wil be going before too much longer.
Thank you for serving and I know that you will be always faithful, like the rest of the your fellow gyrenes, leathernecks, devil-dogs, jarheads.....
A Lance Cpl called Gunny? Must be the new Marine Corps :)
Anyway, I agree that any soldier figting against these murderers is a friend. God grant him peace and rest. Bring his family peace and satisfaction that he died a warrior.
"There are about 100 troops from Sweden with ISAF."
reading is good...
Finishing my coffee before posting is even better.
Yikes, well, since when did posting before finishing two sentences ever stop me from mouthing off? *sigh*
"My son is a relatively new infantry officer in the regular Army. He has not yet made the journey to the Middle East, but wil be going before too much longer."
I'm guessing he graduated ROTC or West Point a few months ago and is about half way through training at Benning?
Hang in there, Dad.
He has done jump school and officer basic at Benning, after graduating ROTC at Mich. State. He is currently with 25th Inf. and will get a retry at Ranger School, Fort Benning, in Jan. (bunged up his leg 1st attempt.
Thank you for inquiring.
Small world. My son is with the 25th. He spent almost a year at Benning after "Green to Gold" ROTC out of Pacific Lutheran in 03. It would have been less time but the Ranger School couldn't take all the guys for the Fall class after IOBC. He did the Jan-March Ranger Class in 04 and eventually caught up with his unit in Afghanistan. Spent seven months as a Platoon Leader in Zobol Province just north of Kandahar. He's now the XO of an HHC in an Infantry Battalion.
I'm sure your son knows the hills of North Georgia can be cold for that three week phase. Whatever you do, drop what you are doing and make it to the Ranger Graduation.
RLTW
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