A 44-year-old Dutch army officer has been killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, in the second fatal incident involving Dutch soldiers within 48 hours.

The killing of sergeant major Mark Leijsen brings the total death toll among Dutch troops in the region to 21. The Netherlands has some 1,500 soldiers on active service in the southern region of Uruzgan.
Leijsen was one of a team of Dutch soldiers training members of the Afghan army, the defence ministry said.
Three other soldiers and their Afghan interpreter were injured by the same bomb blast but their situation is not life threatening, the ministry said.