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Child bomber attack 'revenge', says Taliban

UPDATE 7:40am: The child suicide bomber attack that injured an Australian aid worker in Afghanistan was reportedly a Taliban revenge plot following a US soldier's murder spree of 17 Afghan civilians.

David Savage, 49, had been working for government agency AusAid. The former AFP officer and adviser to the United Nations was injured on Monday when he was caught up in an attack in Oruzgan province.

Mr Savage, from Canberra, is believed to be an employee of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade who was on secondment to AusAid.

AusAid said he had been returning from a community meeting in the Chora Valley when he was attacked.

Mr Savage was treated at the military base in Tarin Kowt before being flown to a bigger medical facility in Kandahar.

Last night, he was in a stable condition and due to be transferred to a US military hospital in Germany.

Details of what occurred remain scanty.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said he was involved in work outside the main Australian base at Tarin Kowt when he was injured.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack which killed three NATO soldiers and injured an Afghan National Army soldier, Fairfax reports.

A Taliban spokesman says the attack was direct retaliation after US Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales killed 17 Afghans, including nine children in mid March.

Bales was charged with 17 premeditated murders as well as six counts of assault and attempted murder in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province.

The killings - mostly of women and children - are believed to be the deadliest war crime by a NATO soldier during the decade-long conflict and have tested an already tense relationship between Washington and Kabul to the limit.

AusAID said Mr Savage was leaving a community meeting in the Chora Valley, north of Tarin Kowt, when the attack occurred.

He had been accompanied by International Security Assistance Force soldiers, standard procedure for the movement of aid and other officials outside the Tarin Kowt base.

No other Australians were present.

Mr Savage was treated in Tarin Kowt and then transferred to the medical facility at Kandahar for more advanced treatment.

It's now believed he's on his way to Germany for further treatment.

Defence Minister Stephen Smith declined to confirm reports the Taliban may have used a child as a suicide bomber.

"The use of children in such matters, if that has occurred in this instance, is contemptible," he told ABC Radio on Wednesday

"We've seen the Taliban use children in the past and we treat that with nothing but contempt."

Mr Smith said it was too early to make an assessment that the Australian was targeted.

There would be an automatic review of security arrangements provided by coalition forces.