The Canadian military confirms that roadside bombings have taken the lives of two Canadians soldiers and injured three more in two separate incidents in Afghanistan.
"Two Canadian soldiers were killed and two others were injured, one seriously, when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in Afghanistan," Col. Mike Cessford, deputy commander of Task Force Afghanistan, told reporters in Kandahar early Thursday.
"This incident occurred shortly before 8 p.m. Kandahar time approximately 38 kilometres west of Kandahar City. A third soldier received injuries earlier in an unrelated IED strike."
The military has released the names of the dead:
- Master Cpl. Allan Stewart, 30
- Trooper Patrick James Pentland, 23
Both were with the Royal Canadian Dragoons, based at CFB Petawawa in Ontario. Both are originally from New Brunswick, CTV's Lisa LaFlamme reported from Kandahar.
They were travelling in a Coyote, which is a light armoured vehicle used for reconaissance.
One of the injured soldiers will be airlifted to a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. The other two suffered minor injuries.
Jim Pentland, 45, Patrick's father and himself a former soldier, told The Canadian Press that 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.
Patrick had spent some of his leave time with his mother, Gabriele, in Germany just a few weeks ago. The single young man called her on Tuesday, after a deadly Sunday explosion that killed six Canadian soldiers, to tell her he was well, Jim said.
Where the incidents happened
The two incidents occurred in the same general area, about 800 metres to one kilometre apart, Cessford said.
The first incident injured one soldier. The second incident, two hours, later left two soldiers dead and two injured.
"These soldiers had been assisting another vehicle that had been struck by a roadside bomb earlier in the day," said a Dept. of National Defence news release.
While explosives crews were dispatched to search for more possible bombs, it isn't known yet clear how large an area they managed to clear.
"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."
There is a cluster of villages about 38 kilometres west of Kandahar called Sangisar.
Canadian military officials have claimed victory in that area over the Taliban.
"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," Cessford 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."
Earlier Wednesday, a suicide bombing attack on a Canadian convoy west of Kandahar City injured 10 Afghan civilians but no Canadian soldiers. There was minor damage to a Canadian Forces tanker truck in that incident.
That made three attacks on Canadian troops in one day.
"Everybody had been saying when the summer began in Afghanistan that it would be another bloody summer like it was last year," Robert Fife, CTV's Ottawa bureau chief, told Newsnet.
Cessford said that he doesn't think this is the beginning of a spring offensive by the Taliban.
"We have had multiple IED strikes before," he said. "The spring offensive, if you're listening to what the Taliban are saying, they're talking of hundreds and multiple attacks. These are two separate incidents, widely dispersed.
"It is a spike in casualties ... but I am not convinced we are seeing a Taliban spring offensive."
Repatriation ceremony
The news comes on the same day that the bodies of six Canadians killed in Afghanistan on Easter Sunday were returned to Canadian soil at CFB Trenton in eastern Ontario.
Prior to that event, no Canadian had died as a result of enemy action since Nov. 27, 2006. The mission death toll since 2002 is now 53 soldiers and one diplomat. Twenty of the soldiers who have died have come from CFB Petawawa.
The bodies of the six soldiers arrived at 7:15 p.m. ET at the air base located about 160 kilometres east of Toronto.
Sgt. Don Lucas, Master Cpl. Chris Stannix, Cpls Aaron Williams and Brent Poland, and Ptes David Greenslade and Kevin Kennedy were killed when their light armoured vehicle ran over a roadside bomb 75 kilometres west of Kandahar City.
They were inside a LAV-III armoured vehicle at the time. Military officials say the bomb was probably both very powerful and a lucky strike, as LAVs have been doing a good job of keeping Canadian soldiers protected.
Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean, the formal commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, were on the tarmac to meet them, along with their families and other dignitaries.
Fife said the event is closed to the media at the request of two of the families, although CTV and other outlets will cover it from outside the base.
Other Afghanistan developments
The U.S. announced Wednesday that all soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq will immediately begin serving 15-month tours instead of the usual 12-month tours.
Canadian soldiers are working on six-month rotations in Afghanistan.
In addition, Australia announced Wednesday it will add another 400 troops to its current Afghan deployment of 550.
"This is good news," Fife said. "One of the problems that our soldiers, and all the NATO soldiers in Afghanistan, face is that there isn't enough boots on the ground to be able to deal with the Taliban."
This is particularly true for the British, Dutch and Canadian soldiers operating in southern Afghanistan, which is Taliban heartland, he said.
Keeping more U.S. soldiers on the ground and adding some Australian ones should help, he said.
NATO's defence ministers are meeting Thursday in Quebec City. "Perhaps there'll be some more developments ... in terms of troop commitments," Fife said.
With a report from CTV's Lisa LaFlamme and files from CTV's Robert Fife and The Canadian Press
