The Canadian military has identified the second soldier killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan Saturday as Sapper Matthieu Allard.
Allard, 21, and 23-year-old Cpl. Christian Bobbitt were killed in the Zhari district, west of Kandahar.
Both were members of the 5th Combat Engineer Regiment and had been serving in Afghanistan since March with the 2e Batallion of the Royal 22e Regiment, also known as the Van Doos, based in Valcartier, Que.
Allard's name had not been immediately released pending notification of next of kin.
The two soldiers were killed when their re-supply convoy was hit by two improvised explosive devices.
The two soldiers had left their vehicle to secure the area after an initial explosion near the town of Senjaray, when a second IED exploded around 3:20 p.m. local time.
Brig.-Gen Jonathan Vance, commander of Task Force Kandahar, described Allard as a leader with a sense of humour.
Maj. Yannick Pepin, commander of the 51 Field Engineering squadron, said both soldiers were very close.
"They were always together," he said following a ramp ceremony at the NATO airbase in Kandahar.
Pepin described Allard as hard-working and a team leader.
"If you didn't say stop, he'd always continue working," Pepin said.
The two soldiers were part of a group of engineers who clear roads of IEDs. The two likely helped defuse half of the roadside bombs found in Kandahar province in July, according to Vance.
"The roads in Kandahar are heavily travelled by Afghans, and soldiers like Christian and Matthieu work tirelessly under extremely hazardous conditions to try and prevent restrictions to the freedom of movement of Afghans, so that they can begin to live more normal lives," Vance said.
On the day the two men died, soldiers halted operations at two bomb-making factories and seized a quantity of bomb-making equipment, Vance said.
Allard is survived by his parents, Rene and Christine.
The total number of Canadian soldiers killed during the Afghan mission is now at 127.
With files from The Canadian Press
