An Australian soldier was killed in Afghanistan during a Taliban rocket attack, AP quoted sources of the Defense Department as saying Monday. The soldier was killed instantly Sunday when a Taliban-fired rocket exploded in a compound in the southern province of Uruzgan where a group of Australian troops was stationed, Defense Force Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston told reporters in Canberra. No other soldiers or civilians were injured in the attack, he said. The Defense Department declined to release the soldier's identity, but said he had been in Afghanistan for several weeks and was a third of the way through his deployment. Australia has about 1,000 troops in Afghanistan, and Rudd said Monday that the government had no plans to add more.
