Two NATO soldiers are dead following a roadside bomb incident in southern Afghanistan, but coalition officials say they are not Canadians.
The incident happened in Kandahar province, where Canada's 2,400 troops are operating. The nationalities of the two have not yet been released.
They were on a security patrol with Afghan troops.
More than 200 foreign troops died in Afghanistan in 2007, while almost 30 troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force have been killed so far in 2008.
Meanwhile, Afghan and NATO forces claim to have killed more than 40 insurgents near the town of Deh Rawood in the Dihrawud district of Uruzgan province on Saturday, an Afghan security official said Sunday.
Uruzgan is on the northern border of Kandahar province. Dutch troops form the main NATO force in that area.
The NATO and Afghan troops were backed by air power.
The troops seized insurgent weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns.
The Afghan defence ministry would not officially give a specific casualty figure for the insurgents. However, it did say a Taliban commander was among the dead.
Easter in Kandahar
Canadian soldiers marked Easter weekend, which ends a week in which four coalition soldiers had died.
"If it was a normal Easter weekend, I'd probably be having dinner with my mother, and we'd have our little Easter egg hunt and then I'd go visit my brother," Cpl. Robert Lehnen told reporters.
"The whole coalition is losing soldiers," said Fr. Bastien LeClerc, a Canadian priest, noting that a total of four -- Canadian, American and Romanian -- soldiers had died this week.
"We're all in this together, and we all pray together and keep up with each other. It's important that we support each other in this journey here."
Afghanistan is a Muslim nation, with strict laws against blasphemy and apostasy.
"When you look at the heart of all religions, I think we're looking at peace and harmony among mankind," said Capt. Robert Szpack.
"Unfortunately, politics tends to get in the way of the true meaning of religions -- whether they be Muslims, or Roman Catholics or Jewish or whatever."
With files from The Associated Press
