Australia has lost another decorated soldier as the nation reaps a bitter harvest from Afghanistan's fighting season.
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Highly experienced commando Sergeant Todd Langley, 35, based in Sydney, was shot in the head and died in a battle with insurgents, Defence chief General David Hurley announced on his second day in the job this morning.
A second soldier was also shot and is being treated at a medical facility in Kandahar.
Advertisement: Story continues below Sergeant Langley is the 28th Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan and the seventh this year.
General Hurley said a "significant number’’ of insurgents had open fired on a Special Operations Taskforce and members of the Afghan National Army, killing Sergeant Langley.
General Hurley said a number of enemy combatants had been killed in the operation.
The two Australian soldiers were shot within about 10 to 15 minutes of each other and were about one kilometre apart, General Hurley said.
He said further details about the shootings would be released after Defence received full reports from those on the ground.
Sergeant Langley was on his fifth deployment in Afghanistan and was described as an "exceptionally experienced soldier’’ by General Hurley. Sergeant Langley had received two commendations for distinguished service and a unit citation for gallantry.
Defence Minister Stephen Smith said the army had suffered another "heavy blow’’ with Sergeant Langley’s death so soon after that of Victorian Sergeant Brett Wood, also a decorated and respected soldier, on May 23 during a dark fortnight for Australia's forces in Afghanistan.
Sergeant Wood was awarded a US Meritorious Service Medal posthumously by General David Petraeus, the commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force.
The previous Australian soldier to die was Sapper Rowan Robinson, 23, shot and killed in a raid on an enemy munitions dump on June 6.
Sergeant Langley's death comes days after the US announced it would withdraw 30,000 troops from Afghanistan, starting at the end of the year. Germany and France will also begin pulling out their forces to coincide with the United States withdrawal.
But Mr Smith today said any move by Australia to pull out of Afghanistan would leave a vacuum to be filled by the Taliban, which could lead to further terrorist attacks against Australians.
‘‘We believe it is in our national interest to be in Afghanistan,’’ he said.
