SYDNEY - AN AUSTRALIAN soldier has been killed in a rocket attack by Taleban insurgents on a base in Afghanistan's southern province of Uruzgan, the military said on Monday.
'Taleban insurgents engaged an Afghan forward operating base with rockets.'
'An Australian element was deployed at the base during this attack,' Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said in a statement.
'The soldier was killed instantly when a rocket exploded in the compound.' The defence force chief did not name the dead man and gave no further details.
The soldier was the eighth Australian to die in Afghanistan, where Canberra has about 1,000 troops, up to 300 of whom are special forces stationed in southern Uruzgan province.
A total of about 70,000 international troops are in Afghanistan and more than 290 foreign soldiers lost their lives in the war-torn country last year. -- AFP
