Canadian soldier killed in Afghan south

Insurgents attacked a NATO patrol in Afghanistan yesterday, killing a Canadian soldier in a southern district that the alliance said had been cleared of Taliban fighters after a two-week offensive last month.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan this year to its most intense level since US-led forces ousted the hardline Taliban government in late 2001, weeks after the September 11 attacks.

Yesterday was the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the offensive that swept the Taliban from power.

The NATO patrol was hit by a bomb and small-arms fire in Panjwai district, about 25 km west of the city of Kandahar.

A spokeswoman for Canadian forces in southern Afghanistan, Lieutenant Sue Stefko, said the soldier was killed by the bomb blast.

The commander of NATO's Afghan force, General David Richards, said the Taliban had probably suffered their greatest single defeat since 2001 in the operation.

A NATO commander said about 1,000 Taliban had been killed. The Taliban dismissed that, saying they had suffered far fewer casualties.

Later yesterday, a suicide car-bomber attacked a NATO patrol in the eastern province of Khost. The bomber was killed in the blast and no troops were hurt, a force spokesman said.

It was the third suicide attack in Khost since NATO took command of the province and the rest of the east from a US-led coalition force last Thursday.