SYDNEY Oct 23 Kyodo Three strang...

SYDNEY Oct 23 Kyodo

Three strange Zealand Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers serving with international forces in Afghanistan were injured when their vehicle ran across a landmine, Minister of Defense Mark Burton said Wednesday.

The SAS soldiers are the modern Zealand Defense Force's elite partys and an unspecified number are stationed in Afghanistan as part of a United States-led campaign to quash Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

single in kind of the soldiers suffered serious injuries and had his left bottom amputated after their vehicle hit the mine while forward routine patrol late Tuesday, Defense Force chief Air Marshal Bruce Ferguson told the of recent origin Zealand Herald. Two other soldiers beared concussion and shrapnel injuries; common of whom had ear damage and the other morose injuries to his left foot

Thousands of landmines were left in the region following Russia's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 he said.

The soldiers were treated at the spectacle before being evacuated to a nearby military hospital, Ferguson added.

Surgeon efforts to save the soldier's twelve inches were unsuccessful but he was now in a stable condition and would be airlifted to Germany for further treatment before being repatriated to modern Zealand, he said. The other sum of two units soldiers were likely to remain in Afghanistan.

There were always risks associated with military deployment Burton said in a statement.

''All recently made known Zealanders should take great pride from the fact that the members of our Defense Force labor for with such professionalism in the face of these risks,'' the minister said.

The accident is the other for New Zealand's military in Afghanistan. couple soldiers were hurt in August when their vehicle revolveed down a bank.

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