Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan blast

An explosion in southern Afghanistan has killed two Canadian soldiers and injured three others, an official said today.

Colonel Mike Cessford, deputy commander of the Canadian contingent in the country, said the blast happened yesterday, but did not disclose the exact location.

Most of the Canadian troops serving in the NATO-led force are based in volatile southern province of Kandahar.

The blast happened three days after six Canadian troops were killed in a roadside bomb explosion, also in the south. Those deaths were the single worst combat loss for Canada in Afghanistan.

There are some 2,500 Canadian troops in Afghanistan in a 36,000-strong NATO force. The latest violence comes as NATO and Afghan troops push on with their largest-ever anti-Taliban offensive in southern Afghanistan, Operation Achilles, launched last month to flush out Taliban militants from the northern tip of opium-producing Helmand province.