Explosion Kills Michigan Soldier In Afghanistan

CORUNNA, Mich. (AP) - A 20-year-old Michigan soldier has been killed during fighting in Afghanistan.

Army Pfc. Shane Cantu's ex-football coach says the Corunna High School graduate died Tuesday after insurgents threw an explosive over a base wall.

Ex-Corunna coach Mark Sullivan tells Mlive.com that Cantu was a three-year starter at the mid-Michigan school.

Cantu's friend Army Spc. Ryan Friedrichs is the husband of Wayne State University law professor and ex-Michigan secretary of state candidate Jocelyn Benson. She tells The Associated Press her husband informed her of Cantu's death from Afghanistan.

Benson says Friedrichs and Cantu "went through basic training, airborne school, flights back and forth from their base in Italy to Michigan, and deployed together."

She calls Cantu's death "a heartbreaking, devastating loss."

The Pentagon hadn't yet announced the death Wednesday afternoon.

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