Defence minister, Carme Chacón, dropped everything yesterday to deal with the aftermath of a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan that left two Spanish soldiers dead and four others injured.

Ms Chacón arrived in Herat at 11.30am local time this morning just over 24 hours after the attack in Shin Tant around 100km away.

The casualties were all travelling in the last of six armoured troop carriers escorting a convoy of twelve Afghan lorries that was hit by a van packed with around 30kg explosives driven by a Taliban suicide bomber.

Ms Chacón has already visited the three least seriously victims - Captain Enrique Dopico Rodríguez, Sergeant Gonzalo Miguélez Diéguez and Corporal Alberto Cao Pérez - who are being treated at a Spanish military hospital in Herat.

They will travel back with the minister - along with the bodies of their two dead comrades, Rubén Alonso Ríos (30) and Juan Andrés Suárez García (41) - and are expected to arrive in Santiago de Compostela tonight, or during the early hours of tomorrow morning.

The fourth survivor - Corporal Antonio Cures García - is reported to be in a serious, but stable, condition following surgery at an American hospital facility in Kandahar, and will return to Spain as soon as he is cleared to travel.

Spanish troops killed in Afghan suicide attack
By: thinkSPAIN
Sunday, November 9, 2008

Defence minister Carmé Chacón has confirmed that a suicide bomb attack on a military convoy in the Shindand district of Herat has claimed the lives of four Spanish soldiers and left four others injured.

The attack occurred at around 12.30pm local time when a van packed with explosives crashed into the last of six Spanish armoured troop carriers escorting twelve Afghan lorries.

Ms Chacón confirmed the identities of the two men that died as Rubén Alonso Ríos (second photo, right), a 30-year-old married man from Vigo, and 41-year-old Juan Andrés Suárez García from Mieres in Asturias.

The four injured men, one of whom is reported to be critically wounded, are being treated at a Spanish military hospital in Herat.

All six are from the Light Air Transport Brigade based in Figuerido (Pontevedra).

Taliban rebels immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in an on-line statement in which they wrongly announced that the victims were Americans.

These are the first fatalities in Afghanistan since Ms Chacón's appointment last April, although a total of 87 Spanish servicemen and women have died since the start of the mission back in 2002.