KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Two Canadian soldiers were injured Thursday night by a roadside bomb 25 kilometres outside Kandahar city.
A Leopard tank travelling as the last vehicle in a convoy hit an improvised explosive device at 8 p.m. local time, said military spokesman Lt. John Nethercott.
The convoy was then ambushed by small arms fire as it travelled east on a major highway in the region.
The incident wasn't serious enough to disable the tank, and the convoy pushed through the ambush to Patrol Base Wilson, Nethercott said.
The injured soldiers were evacuated by helicopter to the multinational hospital at Kandahar Air Field.
They are expected to return to active duty.
"Because insurgents cannot succeed in conventional operations against Canadian forces there will be a continued use of IEDs by the Taliban," said Nethercott.
"We will look at the circumstances surrounding this incident and learn what lessons we can."
Until June of this year, the military estimated it had evaded approximately 150 IED attacks, but fell prey to around the same number.
There have been at least four attacks already this month.
On Monday, another Leopard tank was struck by an anti-tank mine en route to a police checkpoint. There were no injuries.
Over the weekend, a suicide bomber rammed into a light armoured vehicle just outside Kandahar City, sending four soldiers to hospital.
All four are expected to recover.
On July 4, six Canadian soldiers were killed when their RG-31 armoured vehicle hit a massive roadside bomb which engineers said was the largest they'd seen since arriving in Afghanistan.
The military has admitted it is hard to prevent IED strikes; two-thirds of the bombs they defuse are reported to them by local Afghans.
But they say they place their faith in the armoured vehicles carrying troops to and from missions in the field.
