Three Canadian soldiers killed, one injured in Afghanistan

Three Canadian soldiers died Saturday and one was injured when their vehicle was hit by a explosion just west of Kandahar.

Soldiers were responding to reports people were planting a suspicious object when an improvised explosive device detonated.

The Canadian military said Saturday that primary next-of-kin have been notified, but the soldiers will not be identified until extended family members have been contacted.

The injured soldier is reported in fair condition.

The news came as 1,000 mourners paid tribute to Cpl. Mark Robert McLaren in a Peterborough, Ont., drill hall. He was one of three soldiers killed in a roadside blast on Dec. 5, brining Canada's troop death toll to the grim milestone of 100.

McLaren, 23, died alongside Pte. Demetrios Diplaros, 23, and Warrant Officer Robert John Wilson, 27, on Dec. 5, when the armoured truck they were travelling in struck an improvised explosive device (IED).

Saturday's deaths occurred near where the Dec. 5 attack happened, just west of Kandahar City, on the border between the Arghandab and Zhari districts, near the village of Senjaray.

"It's the same type of attack, an IED, in almost exactly the same place," Globe and Mail reporter Graeme Smith told CTV Newsnet on the phone from Kandahar.

"It's a very dangerous stretch of highway that runs west of Kandahar city, just over the bridge that leads you out to the farmland where Canadians have been fighting for the last two years."

The area was not considered a Taliban stronghold until recently, Smith said.

With the latest attack, Canada's troop death toll is now 103. A diplomat was also killed.

With a report from the Canadian Press

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