A 29-year-old Polish soldier died when a mine exploded on a road in southeastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, Poland's defence ministry said. Pawel Ordynski, whose vehicle struck the mine in the province of Ghazni, is the 39th Pole to die in a decade of conflict in Afghanistan, ministry spokesman Jacek Sonta said. Poland has 1,800 troops serving in Afghanistan with NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), making it one of the main contributors to the 100,000-strong mission.

Denmark will withdraw half of its 650 soldiers from Afghanistan in August, a year earlier than planned, Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said Tuesday. An infantry unit had been due to be replaced in the volatile Helmand province in August but Thorning-Schmidt said that this would no longer take place based on an assessment by British and Danish defence officials. "Therefore the only combat unit in Afghanistan will be our tank unit, which will remain," he told reporters.

A large suicide bomb exploded near the defence ministry in central Kabul during a visit to the Afghan capital on Saturday by new US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, officials said. A spokesman for the Afghan defence ministry said that there were civilian casualties but he did not give any further details. "A suicide attacker has detonated himself within 30 metres (100 feet) of the defence ministry gate, there have been casualties among civilians, but defence ministry personnel have not suffered any casualties," Zahir Azimi told AFP.