A bomb struck a NATO vehicle in southern Afghanistan Wednesday, killing six Canadian soldiers and their interpreter, while a German national was reported kidnapped in a remote and dangerous area.

The explosion occurred as a convoy of a dozen vehicles was returning from a joint operation with the Afghan national army, Canadian Brigadier General Tim Grant said.

"At approximately 11 o’clock this morning, six Canadian soldiers and one local Afghan interpreter were killed when the vehicle they were driving in struck an improvised explosive device about 20 kilometres (13 miles) southwest of Kandahar city," Grant said.

The convoy was returning after searching for militants in a village.

Most of Canada’s 2,500-strong deployment with NATO’s International Security Assistance Force is based in Kandahar which is at the heart of an insurgency by Taliban militants.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Taliban movement regularly carries out such bombings on foreign troops.

It was one of the deadliest bombings of an ISAF vehicle. Six Canadian soldiers were killed in a similar blast on April 8. The deaths took to 105 the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year, most of them in combat.   …more