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Topic: Roadside bomb killed three Canadian Soldiers (Read 348 times)
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Jesse Reed
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Canadian Press
Published: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 Article tools
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - A roadside bomb has killed three Canadian soldiers in southern Afghanistan, bringing the death toll for the Canadian military in the country to 60.
Military officials say the blast hit the all-terrain vehicle carrying the soldiers on a resupply operation between two check points near a forward base.
They say it's an open-top, unamoured vehicle.
With these fatalities, 60 Canadian soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan since 2002.
The deaths come on the day of the military funeral for 25-year-old Trooper Darryle Caswell in Bowmanville, Ontario.
He was also killed by a roadside bomb on June 11, a day when the Canadian military came across a large number of these improvised explosive devices.
IEDs, as they are called, have been responsible for about a third of the Canadian deaths in Afghanistan.
Earlier Wednesday, Canadian and Afghan soldiers battled insurgents in nearby Zhari district for four hours.
The goal of Operation Season was to disrupt Taliban presence and thwart efforts of insurgents to ambush Afghan police along a main highway in the region, Maj. Dave Quick, officer commanding of India Company, said.
Troops raced over compounds and farmers houses during the battle, which Quick estimated killed at least 15 Taliban.
Two Canadians and three Afghan National Army soldiers suffered minor injuries in the battle.
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Jesse Reed
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Mike Blais
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Two soldiers named TheStar.com - News - Two soldiers named
Three died as Afghan insurgents targeted light unarmoured vehicle
June 20, 2007
Bruce Campion-Smith
Staff Reporter
and Canadian Press
OTTAWA – Three Canadian soldiers killed today when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan were honoured as “fallen heroes” in Parliament.
Cpl. Stephen Bouzane and Pte. Joel Wiebe, both of the 3rd battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, were identified as two of the soldiers killed in the blast. Both were based in Edmonton. The name of the third soldier was withheld to allow more time to notify extended family members.
“This is, of course, a terrible tragedy as it always is when Canada loses brave men and women who are willing to put on the uniform not only to defend our own rights and freedoms but those of people around the world,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the Commons.
“We will obviously remember these three fallen members of the armed forces in our thoughts and prayers and our condolences and heartfelt sympathies go out to their friends, families and colleagues.” he said at the start of question period
Liberal Leader Stephane Dion called the three soldiers “fallen heroes” and said Canada “can ask for no greater sacrifice.
“We will remember them and we will honour them and we thank them,” Dion said.
The soldiers, whose names have not yet been released, were traveling in an unarmoured, all-terrain vehicle a short distance between two Canadian checkpoints when the blast occurred, Brig. Gen. Tim Grant, the commander of Canadian forces in Kandahar, said this morning.
The deaths immediately prompted questions whether the light vehicle, known as a Gator, was appropriate for an area, given the insurgents’ preference for using roadside bombs to target allied troops.
“This vehicle has been used regularly to do resupply missions between some of the checkpoints outside of the forward operating bases,” Grant said.
“We will review our procedures. If we determine that we need to change them we will do so but at the current time we look at this as unfortunate accident,” he said.
He said the local terrain – compounds with high mud walls – precluded the use of larger, armoured vehicles to do resupply.
“A determined enemy clearly was able to penetrate the defences and the observation in the area to plant this device,” Grant said.
A rash of recent attacks prompted questions whether Canadians were facing a “summer offensive” rather than a spring offensive.
“I wouldn’t use that term,” Grant said.
“Clearly we have seen some additional attacks but unlike last year we don’t see coordinated attacks, we don’t see the enemy able to gather in strength and to present a concentrated force of great threat,” he said.
Grant’s voice broke as he spoke about the loss of “great friends, great young Canadians.
“Our hearts are with the family of the fallen as they grieve and learn of the death of their loved ones,” Grant said.
“The loss of every soldier hurts us here in Kandahar. These soldiers understood what they were doing. They understood the importance of the mission and they understood that they were fighting the good fight,” Grant said.
With these latest deaths, 60 Canadian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
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Mike Blais
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Three more Canadian soldiers killed by Taliban bomb
Don Martin
CanWest News Service
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Corporal Stephen Frederick Bouzane of the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, was killed when the vehicle in which he was traveling struck an improvised explosive device approximately 40 km west of Kandahar City, Afghanistan.
CREDIT: Handout
Corporal Stephen Frederick Bouzane of the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, was killed when the vehicle in which he was traveling struck an improvised explosive device approximately 40 km west of Kandahar City, Afghanistan.
Private Joel Vincent Wiebe of the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, was killed when the vehicle in which he was traveling struck an improvised explosive device approximately 40 km west of Kandahar City.
CREDIT: Handout
Private Joel Vincent Wiebe of the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, was killed when the vehicle in which he was traveling struck an improvised explosive device approximately 40 km west of Kandahar City.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The final day of spring may have kicked off a serious summer offensive as the Taliban claimed Canadian soldier victims 58, 59 and 60 in a campaign to reassert themselves in a region that had appeared increasingly stable.
Canadian flags dropped to half-mast over the Kandahar military base Wednesday afternoon to mourn the death of three Canadian soldiers riding in an unarmoured six-wheeled vehicle called a Gator.
The dead have been identified as Cpl. Stephen Bouzane, 26, and Pte. Joel Wiebe, 22, and Sgt. Christos Karigiannis, all of the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
Bouzane, who was born in Little Bay, Nfld., also lived in Scarborough, Ont. The City of Toronto will lower the Canadian flag at city hall to half-mast today in his honour. Karigiannis was a native of Montreal.
Ramp ceremonies to send their bodies back for repatriation at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Ontario are scheduled to be held in Kandahar tonight.
Driving along a roadway that was little more than a goat track snaking through mud-walled vineyards, the soldiers' supply vehicle detonated a bomb that had been planted by insurgents overnight.
The deadly blast was a rare victory for the insurgents. The Panjwaii valley, located an hour's drive southwest of Kandahar, is considered a Canadian military success story, reclaimed by villagers whose lives are gradually returning to something resembling Afghan normal.
The blast also occurred between two military checkpoints barely a kilometre apart, so the booby trap was probably set within night-vision-goggle range of the outposts.
But this is not a place where the Taliban are amassing to regain old ground through organized force. The bomb was likely a one-off signal to jittery locals not to side with international forces, lest they face reprisals once foreign soldiers leave the region.
Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, commander of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, delivered a heartfelt but tragically predictable pre-eulogy in a grove of trees a few metres from the Canadian memorial to the nation's growing roll call of Afghanistan fallen.
"They understood what they were doing, they understood the importance of the mission, they understood they were fighting the good fight," he said. "We are not deterred from our mission. We understand its importance and the mission will go on."
There wasn't much else he could say, and he hinted he'll be saying it all over again.
"The Taliban see our successes in this particular district as a challenge to them and so they continue to try and disrupt us and dislocate us and in that way they are totally unsuccessful," he said. "They continue to show their desperation and, from that standpoint, we will expect to be attacked again."
Grant shrugged off questions about what soldiers were doing riding around dangerous trails in an all-terrain vehicle primarily used to whip supplies around military bases. The risk seemed manageable and, besides, it was about the only type of vehicle that could weave through the tight off-road trails in the area, he argued.
While the accident could force the military to give its procedures a second look, the sketchy details suggest the military has already decided this is a tragic accident and not a case of procedural or protocol carelessness.
"The vehicle was appropriate for the task at hand and the terrain that they were travelling in," he told reporters. "It is very tight, a farming area with lots of grape fields, lots of tracks and mud walls. They were moving from one compound to another and ... it was in terrain suited to this vehicle as opposed to others."
Even so, the deaths must be considered a major public relations victory for the Taliban, who until now were increasingly invisible in a region lush with grape crops and, undoubtedly, poppy fields.
While soldiers have reported progress in winning over villagers who often appear willing to disclose Taliban activity, the soldiers' deaths may be seen by locals as evidence the Taliban threat to their lives has not yet been neutralized.
Besides, the Taliban fight seems to be successfully splintering into multiple prongs - and the death toll is rising in other camps as well.
An Afghan police chief was killed in the eastern province of Khost, an interpreter and three American soldiers died in a convoy bombing, two security guards were killed in the southern province of Zabul, while two Canadians and three Afghan soldiers suffered minor injuries in one four-hour battle in the Zhare district.
Add those to the deadliest suicide bombing this century, less than 100 metres from a major police station in downtown Kabul, and there are growing signs of a resurgent insurgency fighting to restore terror wherever there was a danger of stability.
In Ottawa, meanwhile, political leaders from all four parties opened the parliamentary question period with expressions of condolence to the families of the three dead soldiers.
"They served with courage and honour in Afghanistan," said Liberal Leader Stephane Dion. "We will remember them, we will honour them, we thank them."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper called the losses a terrible tragedy. "Our thoughts and prayers and our condolences and heartfelt sympathies go out to their families, friends and colleagues," he said.
dmartincanwest.com
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
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Amen , and may these three fine young soldiers now rest in the peace they have earned..and may their families and friends find solace in the great deeds of their lives and sacrifice...ranrad
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RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
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Mike Blais
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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That video was pretty good, Don. Jody looks well and said all the right things... Pro Patria
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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