Polish soldier killed in Afghanistan

A Polish soldier has been killed and two other injured in a roadside bomb explosion while on a patrol mission in Afghanistan. Spokesman for the Defense Ministry Jacek Sonta said Tuesday that the explosion occurred earlier in the day in the south of the Ghazni province. The 30-year-old Pfc. Rafal Nowakowski was killed when a roadside bomb exploded under the armored vehicle he was traveling in. Sonta says two other soldiers were hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening. Poland has lost 29 soldiers in attacks in Afghanistan since starting the mission there in 2007. Its force of some 2,600 troops is to be reduced by about 100 later this year, according to a report of the Associated Press.