Norway minister to bring dead troops back
OSLO: Norwegian Defence Minister Grete Faremo said on Monday she would personally travel to Afghanistan to bring home the four soldiers killed when a roadside bomb hit their convoy.
I will accompany the coffins back home, she told reporters in Oslo a day after the deadly attack, adding that she would travel to Afghanistan as soon as possible.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said he was deeply saddened by the loss of life, and said the attack was a cruel reminder of the dangers involved in Norways participation in the military mission in Afghanistan.
Even if we do everything in our power to ensure our soldiers safety, we can never be certain to avoid losses like the ones we suffered yesterday (Sunday), he told the Oslo press conference.
We know that the Norwegian forces are meeting a growing resistance in Afghanistan, and there are large challenges, he acknowledged, stressing however the importance of Norways involvement in the NATO mission there.
We also know that the NATO presence in Afghanistan has prevented al Qaeda and other terror organisations from using the country as a deployment area for terror attacks against other countries, he pointed out.
The four soldiers, aged 21 to 41, were inside an armoured vehicle when it was hit by a roadside bomb in the northern Afghan province of Faryab on Sunday. The blast nearly doubled Norways death toll in Afghanistan to nine and accounted for the most Norwegian troop casualties suffered in a single attack since World War II.
June has been the deadliest month for international troops under NATO command fighting an almost nine-year insurgency led by the Taliban.
With the latest deaths, 98 soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this month, according to an AFP count.
Norway has about 500 soldiers in the country, most of them stationed in the capital Kabul or in the north.
Prior to Sundays deaths, the last Norwegian soldier killed in Afghanistan died in January, also in a roadside bomb attack. afp
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan