Berlin - German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung, interrupting his vacation, confirmed late Monday in Berlin the deaths of two German soldiers and five children in a suicide attack in Afghanistan.

Jung confirmed accounts which had previously come from Afghanistan in which two further German soldiers were wounded in the attack for which the Taliban had claimed responsibility.

Earlier, the governor of Kunduz province had reported the attack in the northern city of Kunduz. The attacker on a bicycle blew himself up next to a German army convoy.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on its website, saying one of its fighters, identified only as Islamuddin, carried out the bombing. The Taliban claimed to have killed 12 German soldiers, saying the incident took place while Afghan and German troops were searching houses in the area. (dpa)