Two Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan
Updated Tue. Oct. 3 2006 7:02 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Two Canadian soldiers were killed and another five injured during an attack by insurgents in the Panjwaii district of Afghanistan Tuesday, Canadian military officials confirmed.
"Two Canadian soldiers have died as a result of injuries suffered during this attack and five others received non-life threatening injuries," Col. Fred Lewis, the deputy commander of Taskforce Afghanistan, said Tuesday.
Sergeant Craig Gillam and Corporal Robert Mitchell were identified as the two soldiers killed.
The soldiers were working to clear a route for a future road construction project when the attack occurred, said Lewis.
He said the patrol came under sustained fire from mortars and possibly rocket propelled grenades around 4:50 p.m. local time. The patrol returned fire.
The injured NATO soldiers have been evacuated to an alliance medical facility.
The fighting comes on a day soldiers faced a series of insurgent attacks, including ambushes, rocket fire and a suicide bombing.
A Canadian patrol came under heavy fire along the Arghandab River, just southwest of the scene of heavy fighting in September.
Later in the day, a bomber on a motorcycle attacked a Canadian military convoy in the volatile region west of Kandahar, ramming his vehicle into a G-Wagon. No casualties were reported in that attack.
Insurgents have increasingly used suicide bombers in their campaign against foreign and Afghan government troops throughout the country this year.
A suicide bomber in the capital, Kabul, killed 12 people and wounded more than 40 on Saturday.
On Sept. 18, a suicide bomber on a bicycle killed four Canadian soldiers as they distributed candy and school supplies to Afghan children.
The attacks come on the day the body of Pte. Josh Klukie, killed four days ago after stepping on a booby-trapped anti-tank mine, returns home from Afghanistan to CFB Trenton.
Reinforcements
Meanwhile, extra vehicles and firepower have begun to arrive in Kandahar for the Canadian forces.
The first of 15 heavily-armoured Leopard tanks deployed to Kandahar have arrived aboard a U.S. military transport aircraft.
Lewis told Canada AM earlier Tuesday that the deployment of the vehicles gives NATO forces a "direct fire capability" in areas of southern Afghanistan where Canadians encountered fierce insurgent resistance last month during Operation Medusa.
"It's not just the tanks," said Lewis. "We've got a force protection company that's going into the Provincial Reconstruction Team to provide them some additional mobility so they can get out and do their reconstruction and development tasks."
Further, he said a dozen military engineers arrived last week to perform project management and delivery tasks.
There have been criticisms that the Leopard tanks are too old, unable to manoeuvre well in cities and have become less effective in an age of unconventional warfare.
But Lewis said the heavy vehicles offer soldiers much better protection than the light-armoured LAV IIIs.
"The way I would describe it is the LAVs are about 20 tons," he said, while the Leopards "are about 50 tons -- and a lot of that is in armour. Certainly they will be better protected."
Lewis added that the Leopards have an excellent day-night fighting capability. "And as we found with the very complex terrain during (Operation) Medusa in the Pashmul area, these tanks have superior cross-country mobility than the LAV III."
Arrangements are also being made to send another 21 Nyalas -- four-wheel-drive vehicles designed to withstand blasts from anti-tank mines -- to Afghanistan.
NATO command to expand
Meanwhile, NATO announced Tuesday that it will assume responsibility for security across the whole of Afghanistan beginning Thursday, when it takes over command in the east from U.S.-led coalition forces.
"In two days, on October 5, NATO security assistance will be expanded to all of Afghanistan," NATO's senior civilian representative, Daan Everts, told a news conference Tuesday.
"And most of the U.S. forces that are still operating on their own command right now in the east will join the overall ISAF organization."
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) already commands forces in the north, west and south, as well as in the capital of Kabul.
At the end of July, the alliance took responsibility for southern Afghanistan -- where Canadian and British troops in particular have come up against fierce insurgent resistance -- from the U.S.-led coalition.
On Thursday, NATO takes command of 10,000-12,000 U.S. troops in the east.
The troop transfer was expected to take place later this year. But alliance officials said battles with insurgents in the south required the pooling of Canadian, British and Dutch forces with U.S. soldiers.
