Six Canadian soldiers were killed and two wounded in southern Afghanistan yesterday when their vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb in the worst attack on 33,000-strong Nato multinational force fighting Taliban insurgents in several months.
The Canadian defence ministry said the incident happened west of Kandahar, the heartland of support for the Taliban.
"I can confirm they are Canadian but the identities have not been released," Lt Morgan Bailey said from Canada's capital, Ottawa.
Separately, a Nato soldier was killed and another wounded by a similar bomb elsewhere in the volatile south of the country, according to a Nato spokeswoman who did not specify precisely where the attack took place.
About 5,000 Nato and Afghan troops are engaged in a major offensive in Helmand province in the south, the opium heartland of Afghanistan, the world's biggest producer.
British and Canadian troops make up the bulk of coalition forces in the south of the country.
The latest deaths bring the Canadian toll to 51 since Ottawa sent troops to Afghanistan in 2002.