A Danish soldier was killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, Danish officials and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.The Danish military said its soldier was killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) while he was on a dismounted patrol, about six miles (9 kilometers) northeast of Gereshk, a town in Helmand Province. His identity was not immediately released, although next-of-kin have been notified.
The country's Army Operational Command said comrades and sanitation experts immediately gave first aid to the injured soldier after the explosion. He was then evacuated by helicopter to the field hospital at Camp Bastion, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival.
"Despite the mourning, I must announce that we have lost a Danish soldier," said Major General Agner Rokos, Head of the Army Operational Command. "My thoughts go first to the family which we will support and help in the future. I am also thinking of the slain soldier's comrades and colleagues, who despite the loss will continue to carry out their duties in Afghanistan."
Coalition casualties in Afghanistan have been rising sharply in recent years, with a total coalition death toll of 709 in 2010, making it the deadliest year for international troops since the war began in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
The council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) eventually declared that the attacks of 9/11, which killed nearly 3,000 people from scores of countries, was considered an attack on all NATO nations. The NATO-backed war in Afghanistan aims to defeat the Taliban and other insurgent groups in the country.
So far this year, a total of eleven coalition service members have been killed in Afghanistan, according to a BNO News count based on official information. Most troops are killed in the country's south, which is plagued by IED attacks on troops and civilians.
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