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With the collapse of the Dutch government this weekend, its 1,600 soldiers are set to be withdrawn from the Taliban-ridden Afghan south shortly before Canada's 2,800 troops leave, creating a dangerous military vacuum there, the Prime Minister warned.

A 26-year-old commando has become the 20th Dutch soldier to die in Afghanistan since the Dutch mission began in 2006. Corporal Keven van der Rijdt was killed in a gun battle with suspected Taliban fighters. A number of them were also killed, the defence ministry said. Van der Rijdt is the first member of the elite commando corps to be killed in Afghanistan.

Queen Beatrix awarded a Dutch commando the country's highest military medal on Friday for his heroics leading an elite military unit in Afghanistan. Beatrix pinned the Willems Order cross and orange ribbon on Capt. Marco Kroon before slapping him on the left shoulder with her right hand to knight him at a ceremony in The Hague. It was the first time in more than 50 years that the medal has been awarded to an individual soldier. It also can be awarded to entire military units. Beatrix said Kroon showed "courage, discretion and dedication" in leading a commando unit in the...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch marines board a fishing boat and free two dozen Yemenis from Somali pirates. They seize and destroy AK-47s and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher but then put the nine bandits back in their skiff and set them free. The Dutch government says its navy made a mistake, but Saturday's catch and release in the Gulf of Aden underscores confusion over what to do with captured pirates — and led to calls in Washington for tougher NATO action. The Dutch marines were among a NATO flotilla that has helped fend off several pirate attacks in recent...

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Dutch commandos freed 20 Yemeni hostages on Saturday and briefly detained seven pirates who had forced the Yemenis to sail a "mother ship" attacking vessels in the Gulf of Aden, NATO officials said. In a separate incident, gunmen from Somalia seized a Belgian-registered ship and its 10 crew, including seven Europeans, further south in the Indian Ocean. SNIP NATO Lieutenant Commander Alexandre Fernandes, speaking on board the Portuguese warship Corte-Real, said the 20 fishermen were rescued after a Dutch navy frigate on a NATO patrol responded to an assault on a Greek-owned tanker by pirates firing assault...

Dutch commandos have freed 20 people who had been captured by Somali pirates after the raiders attacked a Greek-managed tanker, Nato says. The captives, Yemeni fishermen, were freed as the Dutch forces captured seven pirates in the Gulf of Aden. They were aboard a pirate "mother ship" from which smaller craft attack commercial vessels. The captured pirates are alleged to have attacked the tanker using assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. A Dutch warship from the Nato force responded to a distress call from the tanker and saw the pirates fleeing toward a Yemeni fishing trawler, Nato spokesman Alexandre Santos Fernandes...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The son of the new Dutch defense chief was killed Friday by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, and the Taliban claimed that they deliberately made him a high-profile victim of their deadly insurgency. Lt. Dennis van Uhm, 23, was one of two Dutch soldiers killed in the explosion 7 miles (12 kilometers) northwest of Camp Holland, the Dutch military base in restive Uruzgan province, spokesman Lt. Gen. Freek Meulman said. Two more soldiers were injured, one critically. Meulman was standing in for Gen. Peter van Uhm, who was installed as defense chief only on Thursday and...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The son of the Dutch defense chief was killed Friday by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, and the Taliban claimed they deliberately made the young lieutenant a high-profile target. While the Dutch quickly cast doubt on the Taliban claim, the death underscores the danger high-profile soldiers can face and illustrates a grim reality for families, famous and not, who choose the military life. Lt. Dennis van Uhm, 23, was one of two Dutch soldiers killed in the explosion seven miles northwest of Camp Holland, the Dutch military base in the restive southern province of Uruzgan. Two...

The son of the Netherlands’ top military officer was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan early this morning, one day after his father was made head of the Dutch armed forces. Lieutenant Dennis van Uhm, 23, was among two Dutch soldiers killed in the blast seven miles northwest of their military base, Camp Holland, in Uruzgan province, the Dutch defence ministry said. The second dead soldier was not fully identified but was said to be 22 years old. The military insisted today that there was nothing to suggest the commander’s son was deliberately targeted. However there were fears that...

Brussels - Belgium is going to deploy 100 soldiers and four F-16 fighter planes in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province. For four months starting in September, the Belgian forces will support Dutch troops stationed in the Afghan province. The move comes in response to a NATO call for more troops to be deployed in Afghanistan. At the moment, Belgium has 360 soldiers in Afghanistan, most of them at Kabul airport. Germany has rejected a more recent United States call for more troops to be deployed in war-torn southern Afghhanistan. In an unusually frank letter, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates had urged his...

The Hague - Dutch armed forces Commander Dick Berlijn has announced that the two Dutch soldiers who died in Uruzgan on Saturday were killed by friendly fire. The soldiers did not realise they were firing on each other due to darkness and bad weather. Two Afghan soldiers who were killed later that evening were also shot dead by Dutch soldiers. They were mistaken for Taliban fighters because they were not in uniform. At the time, the Dutch soldiers were assisting an injured colleague whose legs will have to be amputated. The two deaths bring the Dutch death toll since the...

The Dutch military mission in Afghanistan will be extended by two years, Netherlands Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has announced. Dutch troops had been scheduled to leave Afghanistan in summer 2008. The decision to extend the mission follows a call by al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden for European nations to stop helping US forces in Afghanistan. Bin Laden said that he - and not the Afghans - was the "only one responsible" for the 9/11 attacks. Dutch troops are stationed primarily in the southern Uruzgan province of Afghanistan. Since the Netherlands joined the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) last...

NATO is turning up the heat on the Netherlands to keep its troops in Afghanistan. A senior military chief at NATO recently made a formal request to the Dutch government to keep its force in the country. Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on Wednesday urged that 'no-one should withdraw from Afghanistan'. In an interview with Dutch Newspaper NRC Handelsblad, the Dutchman said he could not imagine that the Dutch would withdraw. 'No orange tree' NATO spokesman James Appathurai reiterated this and added: "NATO is not an orange tree; the Secretary General can't just shake the tree and...

Utrecht - One of the seven Dutch soldiers injured in a suicide car bombing in the Afghan province of Uruzgan on Tuesday has died in the Central Military Hospital in the city of Utrecht. The 24-year-old lieutenant is the fourth Dutch soldier to die in fighting in Uruzgan. Three others have also been transferred to Utrecht, while three soldiers are being treated in Afghanistan. The Dutch troops were injured in Tuesday's suicide bomb attack in the province of Uruzgan, in which 17 Afghan civilians were killed.

The Dutch defence ministry has confirmed that a Dutch F-16 fighter plane has crashed in Afghanistan, killing the 29-year-old pilot. It is thought the crash was an accident and not the result of hostile fire as the jet was flying at high altitude when it came down. The crash occurred in the province of Ghazni, which is directly north of Uruzgan province, where the Dutch mission in Afghanistan is based. A US rescue team has recovered the body and wreckage, and a Dutch team is investigating the incident.

AMSTERDAM (EJP)--- A majority of Dutchmen support Dutch participation in an international military force in south Lebanon. A poll has concluded that 59 percent wants the army to take part in international peacekeeping efforts in Lebanon. A majority of 65 percent of Dutchmen feel that a Dutch military presence of the national army should involve assisting the Lebanese to rebuild the country. Almost 60 percent feels the US is not doing enough to work towards peace in the region. A total of 78 percent of Dutchmen is ‘very worried’ about the current situation in Lebanon. The news about the popular...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Dutch commandos killed 18 enemy fighters who set up positions in rugged hills overlooking a Dutch camp in southern Afghanistan, the country's military chief said Friday. There were no Dutch casualties during a 10-day mission. "If we had not done something then our soldiers could have come under fire and the construction of our camp could have been hindered," Gen. Dick Berlijn, commander of the Dutch armed forces, told reporters in The Hague. Berlijn said the Taliban fighters were massing on terrain on both sides of the Baluchi Valley, about 6 miles north of where Dutch...

The Netherlands will send an extra 1,400 troops to southern Afghanistan, after parliament ended six months of wrangling to approve the deployment. Despite opposition from one of three parties in the ruling coalition, most MPs supported the plan, including those from the main opposition Labour party. Nato, the UN and US have been urging the Netherlands to send the extra troops to bolster peacekeeping work. Polls show that Dutch public opinion is almost equally divided on the issue. Many Dutch MPs had demanded assurances that the country's troops would not have to work under US forces in Afghanistan. Democrats-66, the...

• Dutch insist troops must not be stranded again• Peacekeepers to free up US forces from next MayThe Srebrenica massacre, the worst atrocity in Europe since the Nazi era, cast a shadow over Afghanistan yesterday when the Dutch government demanded guarantees that its troops would not face a similar disaster again.A plan by Nato to send 6,000 troops into southern Afghanistan was subject to last-minute wrangling as the Dutch government voiced fears that its troops could be stranded. Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, and other Nato foreign ministers, offered reassurances that around 1,000 Dutch troops would be supported...

Europeans Search for Conciliation With U.S. Some States Are Assuaged By Rice on Prison Policy By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, December 9, 2005; Page A16 BRUSSELS, Dec. 8 -- European foreign ministers attempted to make peace with the United States Thursday over the controversy concerning treatment of terrorist suspects, with many saying they were satisfied with visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's explanations of U.S. policy. But lingering concerns were evident when Dutch officials said they would press to set up a prison of their own in Afghanistan so that any suspects captured by Dutch troops there...