BONN, Germany (AFP) -- Only three days after it suspended flights to Iraq, international express courier DHL said Tuesday it was temporarily halting its service to Afghanistan while it carried out a security review in the volatile country.

The cargo service, formerly U.S.-owned but now a unit of Germany's Deutsche Post, said it would conduct a thorough assessment of security conditions in the central Asian nation, which has remained unstable despite the end in 2001 of a 27-year civil war.

DHL has been operating six flights a week into Afghanistan, mostly bringing in humanitarian aid supplies.

It suspended its flights to Iraq on November 22 after one of its planes was hit by a surface-to-air missile as it left Baghdad airport and was forced to make an emergency landing.