Berlin (ANTARA News/AFP) - German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere on Saturday said two German soldiers were killed in a Taliban suicide bombing, contradicting local officials who said three of the seven dead were German soldiers.

The minister also confirmed that the commander of NATO forces for northern Afghanistan, German general Markus Kneip, who was in the targeted building but survived, had been "slightly injured."

The police chief of northern Afghanistan and three other Afghans were killed in the attack at the Takhar governor`s office on Saturday, local officials said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a statement she was "shocked and sad at the deaths, and the injuries inflicted on German soldiers, as well as the Afghan victims."

"This terrorist attack is a illustration of a murderous inhumanity," she said, adding that she hoped the Afghan authorities would lead a painstaking investigation so that those "responsible are held to account as quickly as possible." (*)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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