Afghanistan blast kills 6 Canadians

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – A roadside bomb tore through a NATO vehicle Wednesday, killing six Canadian soldiers and their Afghan interpreter in a southern region of Afghanistan that has seen recent heavy fighting, officials said.

The blast in Kandahar province’s Zhari district raised the number of foreign soldiers killed in the country this year to at least 102, officials said. Brig. Gen. Tim Grant, the head of Canadian forces in Afghanistan, said the six slain troops were Canadian.

The attack was the deadliest against foreign troops in Afghanistan since May 13, when seven troops were killed – five Americans, a Canadian and a Briton – in a crash of their Chinook helicopter in Helmand province. Officials said then it appeared a rocket-propelled grenade might have brought down the aircraft.

Afghan and NATO forces clashed with Taliban militants in Zhari this week, leaving 33 suspected insurgents dead on Tuesday, the provincial governor said. Seven Afghan police died in a roadside bomb explosion in Zhari on Monday. The region was the site of one of NATO’s largest-ever operations last fall and remains highly volatile.

Southern Afghanistan has seen fierce fighting in the past several weeks. More than 2,900 people – mostly militants – have been killed in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan this year, according to an Associated Press tally of numbers provided by Western and Afghan officials.

Of the at least 102 foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year, 46 were Americans, 18 Britons and 22 Canadians.

Also in the south, militants battled Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops in clashes that left 20 militants and one police officer dead, officials said.