Two Canadian soldiers are dead following a suicide bomber's attack on a military convoy in southern Afghanistan, officials confirmed Monday. "I have to announce that two Canadian soldiers were killed just outside Kandahar City," said Brig.-GenTim Grant, the Commander of Canadian Forces in Southern Afghanistan."At about 8:30 this morning a suicide bomber attacked a Canadian convoy, detonating his vehicle and killing two Canadian soldiers."
Grant said the attack took place about one kilometre outside Kandahar City. "The two soldiers that were killed were the only ones that were injured and there were no civilian casualties," said Grant, disputing reports that an Afghan civilian had died.
The two Canadians killed are reported to be the crew commander and driver of a Bison armoured personnel carrier, said The Canadian Press. The names of the soldiers have not been released. "The next of kin have been notified but they have asked for additional time to notify family," said Grant.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families back home and with the members of the battlegroup who have lost some very close friends."
And our prayers as well.
The soldiers had been helping with reconstruction projects outside Kandahar where heavy clashes had taken place over the past several months. Kandahar province has been relatively calm recently aside from some sporadic fighting. "There has not been a death of a Canadian soldier here for six weeks," reported CTV's Steve Chao in Kandahar. "There has been talk for a while of a relative peace, and a hope that peace would last through the winter. This obviously has not happened."
The suicide bomber was reported to have been driving a small minivan. "I heard a powerful bomb explosion," Haji Abdullah, a mechanic in Kandahar City told The Canadian Press. "The atmosphere was very tense. Everybody was running here and there and screaming," he said.
An ISAF soldier died almost three weeks ago when his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device (IED) in the Panjwai district west of Kandahar City. Two other soldiers were injured in that incident.
For Canada, there have been no fatalities since Sgt. Darcy Tedford and Pte. Blake Williamson died in an ambush west of Kandahar City on Oct. 14. There are about 2,500 Canadian troops serving in Afghanistan. Including Monday's deaths, 44 have died since 2002, plus one diplomat.