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Two Estonian soldiers killed in Afghanistan

24 August 2009 13:09 (UTC +04:00)

Kabul â€“ APA. Two Estonian soldiers are dead after their patrol came under attack in Afghanistan, bringing the Baltic nation’s death toll there to six, the Estonian defence ministry said Monday, AFP reported.
Eerik Salmus and Raivis Kang, both 26, died Sunday after their unit came under fire while clearing explosives from a road in Nad-e-Ali in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, ministry spokesman Peeter Kuimet told AFP.
Salmus was killed instantly and Kang later died of his wounds.
The soldiers were part of Estonia’s 289-strong contingent within the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, which draws together 64,500 troops from more than 40 nations.
Estonia first deployed troops to Afghanistan in 2003, a year after the US-led overthrow of the Taliban regime in Kabul and a year before Estonia joined NATO and the European Union.