German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung informed the press at a news conference Tuesday afternoon in Berlin. It was the first German casualty in Afghanistan in more than a year.

"It was a cowardly, malicious attack," Jung said, adding that NATO experienced a "deterioration of the security situation in Afghanistan.''

According to Jung, the convoy of eight vehicles drove over a roadside bomb in the province of Kunduz, in northern Afghanistan, where more than 3,000 German soldiers are stationed.

Convoy personnel included doctors who quickly treated the four injured, but one of them died at the scene. The remaining three troops were flown by helicopter to a hospital in Mazar-e-Sharif for further treatment.

The attack came only three weeks after three German soldiers were severely injured in a terrorist attack. Only a week ago a group of insurgents attacked a German patrol near Fayzabad, but the Germans were able to ward off the ambush, killing one terrorist. So far, 21 German soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.

The German Parliament will decide this October whether to prolong Germany's contribution to the NATO mission in Afghanistan, where security has deteriorated over the past months.

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