Canadian Soldier Killed in Afghanistan

Ottawa/Washington - A Canadian soldier fighting with NATO troops in Afghanistan was killed by a bomb Friday, officials and media reports said. Canada's Defence Minister Peter Gordon MacKay confirmed the death in a statement, but did not give details.

Canadian Television quoted the commander of Canadian forces in Afghanistan, Brigadier General Guy Laroche, as saying the 24-year-old soldier died after a bomb went off next to the tank he was riding in near Kandahar.

The soldier, Private Terry John Street, was the 82nd Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan to topple the Taliban in 2002.

Southern Afghanistan is a stronghold of the Taliban's radical Islamists, where Canadian, US, British, Danish and Dutch troops are carrying the main brunt of the fighting.