KABUL—The son of the new chief of the Dutch military and another Dutch soldier serving with NATO-led forces were killed in an explosion in Afghanistan on Friday.
Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the blast, which occurred at a time of rising violence following a traditional winter lull in fighting.
The Dutch Defence Ministry said in a statement there were no indications that the attack was specifically targeted at the 23-year-old son of chief of joint staffs Peter van Uhm, who took over command of the Dutch military on Thursday.
"The contrast with yesterday's festivities, when command was handed over to General Van Uhm, could not have been bigger," Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop told a news conference in the Hague.
Two other soldiers were also wounded in the attack north of the Dutch base in the southern province of Uruzgan, one of them critically. The blast came as the troops were returning to their base from a major operation that ended on Thursday.
The deaths bring the total number of Dutch soldiers killed in Afghanistan to 16.
Van Middelkoop said though the Dutch armed forces were hard hit by the deaths, they would not be swayed from their task.
"We are expected to be strong, united and professional. And that is what we will be," he said.
Deputy chief of joint staffs Freek Meulman said improvised explosive devices (IED's) also wounded 11 Dutch soldiers two weeks ago. "In Uruzgan the threat of IED's is almost continuously present," he told reporters.
The Dutch government decided last year to extend the mission of its troops serving in the volatile south of Afghanistan until 2010. They have been participating in the NATO-led operation since 2006. At the moment 1,650 are based in Afghanistan. Earlier, three Afghan staff of a foreign security firm were killed in a similar attack in Logar province to the south of the capital Kabul, a provincial police official said.
Violence has surged in Afghanistan in the past two years, with more than 11,000 people killed during that period, the deadliest year since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001.
The deaths include the 336 foreign troops killed in action since 2006.
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