A Danish soldier was killed and four wounded in an explosion in the southern Afghan province of Helmand Saturday the Danish military said.

"It is with great sorrow that I have received word that one of our soldiers has been killed in Afghanistan and that four other soldiers have been slightly wounded," head of the military high command, general major Agnar Rokos said in a statement.

The soldiers, all members of the second division of Denmark's Bravo company, "had been patrolling on foot between Patrol Baseline and Gereshk when an improvised explosive device, a so-called IED, went off," the statement explained, adding all the troops had received first aid before being flown to the field hospital at Camp Bastion.

"Unfortunately, one of the soldier's lives could not be saved. He was declared dead on arrival at the field hospital," the military said.

There are some 750 Danish troops in NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), most of them in Helmand province under British command.

Denmark has said the number will decrease in coming months, and that by the second half of 2012, the force will be reduced to about 650 soldiers.

Sunday's death brought to 36 the number of Danish soldiers killed in combat in Afghanistan since the deployment began, a military spokesman told AFP, adding that six others had died outside of combat, due to illness, accidents and one by suicide.

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