Roadside bomb kills seven Nato soldiers in Afghanistan

Roadside bombs killed seven Nato soldiers in southern Afghanistan as militants struck back during the Alliance’s biggest anti-Taliban offensive.

Six of the troops died when one of the bombs struck their vehicle, the alliance said in a statement.

Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper confirmed that they were Canadian.

Another soldier was injured, Nato said.

In a separate incident, a roadside bomb killed one Nato soldier and wounded two others, the Alliance said.

Nato did not released the nationality of those soldiers or specify where in the south either of the two attacks took place.

The attack on the Canadians appeared to have inflicted the worst toll on foreign troops in a single combat incident since a US helicopter crashed in Kunar in June 2005, after apparently being hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. Sixteen American troops died.

The losses came days after more than 1,000 Nato and Afghan troops retook a district in the southern province of Helmand from Taliban militants. The operation to seize Sangin district started late on Wednesday and is part of Nato’s largest offensive in Afghanistan, Operation Achilles, launched last month to push militants from northern Helmand.

Fighting in Afghanistan typically surges in spring, as warmer weather clears the snow from high passes used by militants to move across the Pakistani border and through the country’s formidable mountains.