An Australian soldier has been killed by an improvised explosives device in Afghanistan.
Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the head of the Australian Defence Force, announced today the 23-year-old soldier was killed just before midnight Friday.
Private Nathan Bewes is the sixth Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan in alittle over a month, increasing pressure on the government to withdraw troops from the war-torn nation.
Chief of the Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said a second Australian soldier suffered minor wounds and remained in a satisfactory condition in hospital in Tarin Kowt.
Pte Bewes, a member of the First Mentoring Task Force who was on his second tour in Afghanistan, was killed in a roadside bomb blast on Friday, taking the Australian death toll in Afghanistan to 17.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the latest loss increased the determination of the soldiers serving in Afghanistan to get the job done.
"There will be Australians today who are asking themselves in the face of this loss why as a country do we continue to pursue our mission there," she told reporters in Darwin, ahead of the funeral of one of three Australian soldiers killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan last month.
"We pursue that mission because Afghanistan is a safe haven for terrorists.
"I believe Australia, while mourning these losses, will understand our continuing determination."
Australia has some 1,500 troops in Afghanistan alongside NATO forces.
Seventeen Australian soldiers have died and 143 have been injured in Afghanistan since 2001.
