SAS soldier Sean McCarthy killed in Afghanistan

Defence chief Angus Houston today said Signaller Sean McCarthy, 25, was from the Perth-based Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) and had been on his second tour of Afghanistan.

He was killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) which also injured two other Australian soldiers and a soldier from another country at 3pm (AEST) yesterday.

He is the sixth Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan since 2002, and the second this year.

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd fears there will be more Australian casualties in Afghanistan, following the death of an SAS soldier there. Mr Rudd said Afghanistan remained a difficult, dangerous and bloody operation. "We've had losses before, my fear is we will lose them again." Opposition defence spokesman Nick Minchin said the fight against the Taliban remained vitally important. "We cannot afford to allow Afghanistan to fall back into the hands of the Taliban. This is the country that trained terrorists to kill Australians in Bali, that had been a home to al-Qaeda that wreaked such havoc upon the world, that (was responsible for) the World Trade Centre disaster."