Germany's former defense minister Franz Josef Jung has quit the cabinet over a deadly bombing in Afghanistan, a day after another official's resignation over the same issue.

On Friday, as public pressure mounted, Jung resigned as labor minister shortly after he had refused to quit over the bombing of two oil tanker lorries in the northern province of Kunduz in which dozens of civilians died.

"After consideration ... I told Chancellor Merkel this morning that I was handing in my position as Federal Labor Minister," Jung told reporters in Berlin.

"I am therefore taking the political responsibility for the internal information policy of the defense ministry regarding the events of September 4 in Konduz," he added.

Jung was defense minister at the time of the strike and insisted two days afterwards that "only Taliban terrorists" were killed.

However a confidential NATO report said in late October that the death toll varied between 17 and 142, and that local sources had said that between 30 and 40 civilians had died in the attack.

After chief of staff General Wolfgang Schneiderhan stepped down on Thursday, the clamor for Jung's resignation had grown even louder.

SG/SS/MMA