First Portugese Soldier Killed in Afghanistan

[Charlie Brown]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L18383120.htm

KABUL/LISBON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - An explosion caused by an old land mine killed a Portuguese soldier and wounded three others serving with NATO-led peacekeepers in Afghanistan on Friday, a spokesman for the mission said.

The death is the first suffered by Portugal in Afghanistan, where it has 200 soldiers serving with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Lieutenant-Colonel Riccardo Cristoni, also of ISAF, said one of the wounded soldiers was in serious condition while the other two suffered slight injuries.

[woldnewton]

1. Can't believe Portugal stayed in there longer than Spain...

they, along with their Spanish neighbors, ousted their neighbors with opposition Socialists the first chance they got, but unlike the Spanish, didn't have to deal with a terrorist attack that, in any other country, might have had a 'rally around the idiot in charge effect', solidifying the psycho conservative hold on power.

Recall, that the Azores Islands, where the eventually-will-be-ousted-barring-another-staged-'terrorist'-attack Bush, soon-to-be-ousted Blair, and the-now-ousted Aznar met a couple of days before they announced and launched the invasion of Iraq, is the territory of Portugal.

[Charlie Brown]

2. Spain is still in Afghanistan

they withdrew support from the "Coalition" in Iraq after Zapatero and the Socialists were elected.

Spain has about 550 peacekeepers in Afghanistan as of February, 2005.

http://www.nato.int/issues/afghanistan/040628-factsheet.htm

[woldnewton]

3. Afghanistan makes sense

*NT*