Payne, 32, and Turner, 44 were one of four Canadian soldiers killed on April 22 when their light-armoured vehicle hit a roadside bomb near Gumbad, north of Kandahar.

The soldiers were travelling in an armoured vehicle called a G-wagon when it was blown onto its side by an improvised explosive device, 70 kilometres north of Kandahar city, around 7:30 a.m. local time Saturday. Three of the men died at the scene, near Gumbad, a small outpost established by the Canadians two months ago. The fourth died shortly after being transported by helicopter to the hospital at the coalition air base in Kandahar.

There was little that could have been done to prevent the insurgent bombing that killed four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, Canada's top soldier says.

Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier said Saturday in Ottawa that the device that killed the soldiers had "considerable explosive power."

"What exactly caused that explosion, we're in the process of determining, and we will determine it, but it was huge," he said at a news conference. "I've seen a picture of the crater, it was deep, it was significant."

Hillier said there is little that can be done to stop determined insurgents from attacking Canadian troops. "You cannot reduce the risk to zero," he said.