WARSAW, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Two Polish soldiers died and one was wounded on Tuesday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb near their base in southeastern Afghanistan, the defence ministry said in a statement on its website.

The improvised explosive device (IED) blew up the vehicle about 3 km (2 miles) from the Polish base in Sharana, Paktika province, the ministry said. The wounded soldier's life was not in danger.

"Polish soldiers were returning to the base after a humanitarian mission. One of the HMMWV vehicles in a column drove onto an improvised explosive device," the statement said.

The ministry had informed the soldiers' families, it said.

Poland has 1,200 soldiers in Afghanistan and plans to send 400 more this year. It plans to pull out its 1,000 soldiers from Iraq by September.

Seven Polish soldiers are awaiting trial over the shooting of six Afghan civilians in August. (Reporting by Chris Borowski, editing by Tim Pearce)

AlertNet news is provided by