Blast kills 3 German troops in Afghanistan

A suicide bomber killed three German soldiers and seven bystanders Saturday in the northern city of Kunduz, the deadliest attack on German troops in Afghanistan in nearly four years.

Three soldiers and more than a dozen other people were wounded in the attack, which occurred in a crowded marketplace. The soldiers had gotten out of their vehicles to make a purchase.

Most of Germany’s 3,200 troops in Afghanistan are deployed in the relatively calm north. Despite appeals from other NATO countries, Germany has refused to take on a broader combat role, largely because the mission in Afghanistan is unpopular with the German public.

The deaths are likely to strengthen resistance in Germany to deployments in more dangerous areas, such as the south and the east.

The unequal sharing of combat duties has caused strain within the alliance, as have arguments over tactics and whether to try to strike accords with local Taliban-linked leaders.

The extent to which security levels vary across the country was underscored by the soldiers’ decision to leave their vehicles and enter the market.

Such an action would be unthinkable in places such as the southern city of Kandahar, where coalition troops routinely speed through town in heavily armed convoys, rarely getting out of their vehicles in a populated area.

The attack might point to a Taliban strategy of striking in unexpected areas, seeking “softer” targets among the Western forces. Taliban leaders vowed vengeance after Mullah Dadullah, the militia’s top operational commander, was killed recently in a U.S.-led operation in the southern province of Helmand.

The attack was the deadliest strike against German troops in Afghanistan since June 2003, when four soldiers were killed in a suicide attack on a bus.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the attack, emphasizing that the German contingent’s prime mission is to provide security for humanitarian assistance.

“These perfidious murders fill us all with disgust and horror,” news agencies quoted Merkel as saying in a statement. “The German military is carrying out an important mission for the reconstruction and stabilization of Afghanistan. It is the goal of the attackers to destroy the ... successes of this rebuilding process.”

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has launched a major spring offensive against Taliban insurgents, and battlefield deaths have been creeping upward.

Some of the recent fighting has come closer than previously to the capital, Kabul.

Coalition forces said Saturday that several dozen Taliban fighters were believed to have been killed in overnight clashes in the eastern province of Kapisa, which borders Kabul province.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said the fighting in Kapisa broke out when insurgents ambushed Afghan and coalition forces with roadside bombs, setting off a shootout.

king@latimes.com

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Special correspondent Faiez reported from Kabul and Times staff writer King from Istanbul, Turkey.