Two more Canadians killed in Afghan blasts as 6 fallen comrades return home
Pastor Dale Morgan
April 11, 2007 10:23:00 PM MDT
*
Two more Canadians killed in Afghan blasts as 6 fallen comrades return home*
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - As six of its war dead were solemnly
returned to Canada, a pair of roadside bombs killed two more Canadian
soldiers Wednesday, signalling an apparent escalation of violence in a
battle-scarred corner of Afghanistan.
Three Canadians were injured in the latest attacks - one was in hospital
in stable condition; the other two suffered minor injuries.
The blasts happened two hours and 750 metres apart.
The two dead soldiers were identified early Thursday as Master Cpl.
Allan Stewart, 30, and Trooper Patrick James Pentland, 23, both of the
Royal Canadian Dragoons, based in Petawawa, Ont.
Stewart and Pentland were killed after their Coyote armoured
reconnaissance vehicle struck an improvised explosive device, or IED, a
short distance from where a similar bomb injured another soldier in a
different convoy two hours earlier.
Col. Mike Cessford, deputy commander of the Canadian contingent in
Kandahar, dismissed suggestions that the latest attacks, coupled with
the devastating bombing on Sunday that killed six Canadians in one
vehicle, could mark the beginning of a long-promised "Spring Offensive"
by the Taliban.
Shop Dell Canada for great deals!
Instead, he described the bombings as an "act of desperation" by an
insurgency that he claims is losing steam.
"All soldiers are thinking of these families," said Cessford, looking
sombre during a late-night briefing at Kandahar Airfield.
"I wish to express our deepest sympathies and condolences for this loss.
It is hard to put into words what they must be feeling in this time of
sorrow."
Jim Pentland, 45, a former soldier and father of the young trooper
killed, said his son was born on the Canadian military base at Lahr,
Germany, and grew up in Oromocto, near CFB Gagetown, N.B.
"He was just a quiet, fit soldier who died doing what he wanted to do,"
Pentland said, adding that his son had spent some of his leave time with
his mother, Gabriele, in Germany just a few weeks ago. The single young
man had called his mother on Tuesday, after the deadly Sunday explosion,
to tell her he was well.
After the initial blast on Wednesday, an explosives ordnance disposal
crew had entered the area to look for additional threats. But it wasn't
immediately clear how big an area they managed to clear before the
second explosion occurred.
"There was a significant separation between the two incidents," Cessford
said. "These were two separate vehicles from two separate areas that
were in roughly the same area."
The attacks took place about 38 kilometres west of Kandahar city,
Cessford said.
He did not give an exact location, but it would be near a cluster of
villages called Sangisar - a part of the country where Canadian Forces
officials have all but declared victory.
Cessford acknowledged it's impossible to prevent insurgents from laying
their traps.
"You can never guarantee perfect stability in these areas; there's
always a chance people can get back and lay IEDs. That is the nature of
the fight that we are in," he said.
"The fact of the matter is that 6,000 families ... have moved into the
area, farming is underway, there are communities that are bustling,
schools that are opening, clinics that are functioning."
Cessford did not say where the soldiers came from, but during a prayer
service in New Brunswick for the six killed on Sunday, Lt.-Col. Paul
Kearney said a unit from Petawawa, Ont., was involved.
The bodies of the six returned home late Wednesday when a C-130 Hercules
aircraft touched down at CFB Trenton in eastern Ontario. Dignitaries and
families stood shoulder to shoulder on the tarmac on a cold, blustery
evening for the sombre ceremony.
Sgt. Don Lucas, Master Cpl. Chris Stannix, corporals Aaron Williams and
Brent Poland, and privates David Greenslade and Kevin Kennedy died in
the roadside bomb explosion 75 kilometres west of Kandahar City on
Easter Sunday.
Their light armoured vehicle were destroyed by a powerful roadside bomb,
causing the worst Canadian death toll for a single day in Afghanistan.
The dead and injured of Wednesday's attacks were taken to the
Canadian-led multinational hospital at Kandahar Airfield aboard a pair
of helicopters, which throbbed out of the darkness shortly after night fell.
As three trauma teams waited to assess the injured, one was brought in
on a stretcher, while the other - looking visibly shaken and
disoriented, but with no obvious injuries - managed to stagger into the
facility on foot, a helper on each arm.
The attacks bring to 53 the total number of Canadian soldiers killed in
Afghanistan since the mission began in 2002. A Canadian diplomat also
died in the country.
It was a day of devastation that began shortly after noon.
Ten Afghan civilians were injured when a military vehicle at the back of
a third Canadian convoy was hit by a suicide car bomber in the area of
Lashkargah, another 50 kilometres to the west in Helmand province.
A coalition statement said U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops clashed
with suspected Taliban militants in Helmand on Tuesday, and then called
in air strikes on a compound, leaving 13 militants dead.
The latest violence came as NATO and Afghan troops continued their
largest anti-Taliban offensive in Afghanistan, Operation Achilles,
launched last month to flush out Taliban militants from the northern tip
of the opium-producing province.
Wednesday's deaths in Afghanistan sent additional waves of sadness
through the prayer service in New Brunswick, as 250 people gathered at a
Roman Catholic church in Oromocto, near the main gate at CFB Gagetown,
to remember the six killed Sunday.
During the service, Lt.-Col. Paul Kearney, chief of staff at CFB
Gagetown, started his address with the news of more casualties in
Afghanistan.
"There were some incidents in the task force today and I want to stress,
first of all, the units were not Gagetown-based," he told the
congregation. Five of the six dead were based at CFB Gagetown.
"What we know right now, it's a unit in Petawawa, all from one unit."
Kearney went on to thank the community for their outpouring of support
for the military and for the families of the fallen soldiers.