Canadian soldiers said goodbye to one of their own at Kandahar Airfield Sunday as pallbearers carried the casket of Cpl. Steve Martin across the tarmac and into a military aircraft for the journey home.

The 24-year-old was killed when an improvised bomb exploded next to his patrol in a volatile area of southern Afghanistan Saturday.

Martin, who was from the Royal 22e Regiment, was killed by a roadside bomb while on a foot patrol near a major road construction project that NATO is pushing into the restive Panjwaii district of Kandahar.

Martin is the 154th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan since the military mission began in 2002. He was just two days short of his 25th birthday.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the fallen soldier during this difficult time," Brig.-Gen. Dean Milner, commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, told reporters at Kandahar Air Field. "We will not forget the sacrifice of this soldier as we continue to bring security and hope to the people of Kandahar province."

Martin's hometown was Saint-Cyrille-de-Wendover, northeast of Montreal. The town's mayor said news of his death caught the community off-guard.

"It's certainly a shock, especially during the holidays," said Daniel Lafond. "This will be a very difficult holiday for the family."

Gaston Laterreur, a neighbour of Martin's parents, recalled that the young soldier appeared happy whenever he came back for a visit.

"He always had a smile on his face when he walked by," Laterreur said. "He was a brave man from a very nice family."

Martin was patrolling near a road that NATO forces are carving into the horn of Panjwaii at the time of his death, early Saturday afternoon local time.

The road is a key element of an offensive by Canadian, U.S. and Afghan forces into the horn of Panjwaii, an area that until recently was dominated by the Taliban and used as a staging point for attacks into nearby Kandahar City, the provincial capital.

Although most insurgents fled the area before an initial assault by coalition troops, several cells of Taliban fighters have continued to operate in the region.

They have mounted harassing attacks against the armoured vehicles and construction equipment building the gravel thoroughfare into the region, sprinkling the path ahead of the troops with IEDs.

Gov. Gen. David Johnston offered his deepest sympathies to Martin's loved ones, saying that his death brought home the weight of his new responsibilities as commander-in-chief of Canada's Armed Forces.

"Cpl. Martin displayed an admirable sense of duty to Canada, bringing great pride to his unit and to the Forces as a whole," Johnston wrote.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a written statement extending his deepest sympathies to Martin's family and friends on behalf of all Canadians.

"Cpl. Martin was a brave Canadian who made the ultimate sacrifice while proudly serving his country," the statement said.

"Thanks to Canadian Forces members like him, we continue to make real progress in Afghanistan, rebuilding the country and contributing to the peace and security of its people."

Saturday's attack shattered a period of relative calm in the Panjwaii district, where most of Canada's troops are based.

Martin's death was the first combat casualty the army has suffered since Cpl. Brian Pinksen died of wounds in hospital on Aug. 26, four days after being caught in a roadside bombing.

Although the onset of winter has meant a decline in attacks, the Canadian battle group in Kandahar has still had several of its soldiers wounded.

The Department of National Defence, however, does not release information on wounded soldiers and military spokesmen would not say if anyone else was wounded in the bombing that claimed Martin's life.

To date, 154 Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan. The figure includes combat deaths, suicides and one death by natural causes.

The bombing that killed Martin came amid a wave of attacks by Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers across Afghanistan.

Earlier Saturday, a suicide bomber attacked the vehicle of an Afghan district chief in the Canadian area of operations.

A car packed with explosives tried to ram a vehicle carrying District Governor Hamdullah Nazik. The bomber missed his target and plowed into bystanders, killing two people, including a child, and wounding 11 others.

Nazik was unharmed.

On Sunday, two militants wearing suicide vests attacked a bus carrying Afghan army officers in Kabul, killing five and wounding nine, the Afghan Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

In the north, seven Afghan soldiers and police were killed when at least four suicide bombers entered an army recruitment centre in the city of Kunduz, visited a day earlier by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

With files from The Canadian Press