AN Australian Digger has died in Afghanistan less than three weeks after a roadside bomb killed Brisbane soldier David Pearce.A Special Air Service (SAS) soldier has become the second Australian to be killed in combat in Afghanistan in less than three weeks. The soldier, whose name has not been released, was fatally wounded in a firefight with Taliban militants in a remote valley of Oruzgan province today. It's understood he is a married father from Perth and was recently awarded a medal for gallantry.
No other Australian casualties were reported, and there were no details of any Taliban killed or wounded.
Head of the Australian Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, said the soldier had been shot while launching a ground attack on a Taliban “sanctuary”. “We are taking the fight to the Taliban, and it was in one of these operations where we were going direct to fight the Taliban that this casualty occurred,” he said in Canberra.
A coalition helicopter evacuated the fallen soldier to a nearby medical facility, but he couldn't be saved. “Despite the best efforts of his comrades and the aero-medical evacuation team, the soldier succumbed to his wounds,” Air Chief Marshal Houston said. “The death of this courageous and dedicated soldier is a reminder of the danger faced by all our forces in Afghanistan.”
The soldier's SAS comrades received special praise from the defence chief for trying valiantly to save their mate's life by administering first aid. “Their courage under fire, and their determination to help a fallen mate, is to be commended,” Air Chief Marshal Houston said.
It's the second death of an Australian soldier in Afghanistan this month, after Trooper David Pearce was killed by a roadside bomb, also in Oruzgan province, on October 8.
