An Australian civilian has been injured in an apparent suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province, Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said on Tuesday.
Carr said the injured man was "an AusAID adviser deployed through the Australian Civilian Corps." He added that the civilian "was working in Uruzgan with local communities on development activities" when he was injured in the bomb attack.
According to Carr, the injured man was in a serious but stable condition following the attack. No other Australians were injured in the attack. Carr said the injured was currently receiving medical treatment in Kandahar, and added that his "next of kin have been advised and are receiving support from the Australian government."
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the incident was "incredibly bad news" for the injured man's family. She said he was "involved in work outside the wire," implying that his work was being carried out outside the Australian base at Tarin Kowt.
Neither Carr nor Gillard identified the injured man by name, citing a request made by his family for privacy. Nevertheless, they said further details would be announced when received.
Foreign forces deployed in Afghanistan have been the target of renewed militant attacks in recent weeks, following the burning of copies of the Holy Koran at a U.S. airbase in February and the massacre of 17 Afghan civilians by a rogue American soldier earlier this month.
Although President Hamid Karzai had earlier reassured NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen that his government would take all steps to halt violence and protect members of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from attacks, such incidents still happen.
A day earlier, an individual wearing military uniform had shot dead two ISAF service members at a military base in the southern province of Helmand. The attacker was killed in the ensuing shootout.
Monday's shooting incident involving an Afghan militant or civilian in military uniform was seventh of its kind in Afghanistan this year. The two deaths in the incident took the total number of ISAF troops killed this year to 90.
Currently, there are over 130,000 foreign troops from more than 42 countries in Afghanistan to contain a resurgent Taliban in the land-locked country. The ISAF has already begun the process of entrusting security responsibilities of several provinces to Afghan forces. The ISAF is aiming to complete the process by 2014, ahead of the eventual withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan in 2014.
The U.S. and its allies are presently making efforts to get the Afghan security forces ready and capable of handling local security prior to the coalition troops eventual withdrawal. However, there are wide concerns in the South Asian country about the ability of Afghan security forces to counter the Taliban insurgency without the same level of foreign military assistance and presence.
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