afp - 3 french soldiers had been killed in the lightning storm in the course of a nighttime operation targeting taliban bomb squads in a valley east of kabul, the french military claimed sunday.
one man was killed by lightning and two others drowned,
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they had been part of a 250-troop operation hunting fighters responsible for planting roadside bombs in kapisa province east of kabul, the spokesman stated.
the joint french and afghan operation, taking place by night in the afghanya valley some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from kabul,
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another soldier was swept off a footpath by a flooding river while medics attended to the lighting victim, and a third was carried off as he tried to rescue his comrade.
"the pair were found drowned at dawn," stated prazuck.
the victims had been a flight sergeant and a corporal of the 13th parachutist special forces regiment,
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all 3 have been stationed at the nijrab forward operating base in kapisa province, where their bodies had been evacuated by helicopter,
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president nicolas sarkozy's office issued a statement saying the head of state "shares in the pain of the families and their loved ones. he offers them his sad condolences."
"they paid with their lives to honour france's commitment to bring peace and security to the afghan people," explained the statement, stressing france's "determination to work to restore peace and development in afghanistan."
defence minister herve morin, who visited the nijrab base earlier this month, voiced his "great emotion" at the men's deaths.
france has now lost 34 soldiers in afghanistan, where it has 2,900 french troops in the nato-led coalition battling taliban guerrillas and training afghanistan's national security forces.
paris pulled out most of its special forces from afghanistan in 2006, but around 60 operatives remain stationed in the country on commando training and intelligence missions, prazuck reported.
afghanistan had been hit hard by a renewed taliban insurgency, which has paralysed a western-backed reconstruction drive,
Microsoft Office 2010 Código De, cost the lives of thousands of people, and bogged nato and us troops down within a nearly eight-year conflict.
this year has been the deadliest for the 100,000 foreign troops in afghanistan since us-led forces ousted the taliban from kabul following the september 11, 2001 attacks in the united states.
a british soldier was killed within a roadside explosion while patrolling in southern afghanistan, the ministry of defence explained sunday, a day after nato announced the death of four us soldiers in two attacks in afghanistan's southern taliban stronghold.