Trooper Pearce of the Queensland Mounted Infantry

WITH ONE THOUSAND AUSTRALIAN SOLDIERS now operating in southern Afghanistan just north of their Canadian cousins, it was only a matter of time before the diggers would come into lethal contact with the Taliban. Trooper David Pearce, 41, a soldier with Brisbane's 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment (Queensland Mounted Infantry), an armoured reconnaisance unit of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps, died after the vehicle he was traveling in was struck by a road-side bomb in Afghanistan yesterday. He leaves behind his wife of 18 years and two daughters aged eleven and six. Trooper Pearce is the 4th Australian soldier to be killed since hostilities began on September 11, 2001.