October 2, 2003
Major General Andrew Leslie addresses members of the Canadian Contingent to Operation ATHENA, after the death of two soldiers and the injury of three others following a suspected mine strike near Kabul, on Thursday Oct. 2, 2003 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Leslie addressed soldiers at the camp hours after the incident, explaining what had happened. "Sometimes there is a price to pay for trying to help people," he told them. "They died doing their duty."
(CP PHOTO/HO.DND/Master Cpl. Brian Walsh)
2 Canadian peacekeepers killed, 3 wounded, one seriously, in Kabul explosion
Posted on Rogers.com at 13:51 on October 2, 2003, EST.
KABUL (CP) - Two Canadian soldiers were killed and three wounded, one critically, while on a patrol Thursday in Kabul when their jeep was thrown into the air by a huge explosion thought to have been caused by an anti-tank mine or a buried shell.
The explosion occurred at about 1:30 p.m. Thursday as two vehicles were on a routine patrol 3.5 kilometres southwest of Camp Julien, the main Canadian base at Kabul, said Gen. Ray Henault, chief of the defence staff, in Ottawa. The track the soldiers were driving on was a proven route that had been cleared Wednesday by engineers, said Maj.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, the Canadian deputy commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, in Kabul.
The two soldiers on the right side of the lead vehicle were killed when it was thrown into the air by the force of the explosion.
The driver was thrown clear and is in hospital in critical condition. His injuries were not considered life-threatening. The other two soldiers were slightly injured, Canadian military officials said.
Members of the Canadian 3RCR use an Iltis vehicle to cover rough terrain as they search for suspected Taliban and al-Qaida incursion points into the mountains during a long range reconnaissance mission near Kabul, Afghanistan Thursday Aug 28, 2003. The Iltis vehicle that hit a landmine in Afghanistan on Thursday, Oct 2 leaving two Canadian soldiers dead and three wounded, was one of about 100 such vehicles being used by troops in the mountainous country.
(CP PICTURE ARCHIVE/Stephen Thorne)
Troops, vehicles bound for Kabul
Ottawa to send help
Matthew Fisher and Chris Wattie
National Post
Friday, October 17, 2003
KABUL - The Canadian contingent in Afghanistan is being reinforced with additional troops and armoured vehicles in response to what Canadian commanders call a growing terrorist threat.
The Canadian Forces announced yesterday that it will send another 16 armoured vehicles and up to 50 troops to the Canadian battle group in Kabul, part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
"We asked for the vehicles [Wednesday] and they were approved by Ottawa [Thursday]," Major General Andrew Leslie, commander of the Canadian troops in Afghanistan, said in an interview. "We are going to give the soldiers what they need because of the changed threat."
Eleven LAV III and four Bison armoured infantry carriers, along with a South African-built mine-proof vehicle, will be shipped to Afghanistan by air, along with their crews and some maintenance personnel, defence spokesmen said yesterday.
Two Canadians were killed and three others wounded on Oct. 2 in an explosion that investigators believe was caused by as many as three anti-tank mines planted under a dirt road only hours before the Canadian patrol drove past.
Lieutenant Colonel Don Denne, the commander of the battlegroup that does the bulk of the patrolling work in the Canadian sector of Kabul, last week said he needed additional armoured vehicles to protect his troops.
Maj.-Gen. Leslie and other commanders here are concerned about the worsening security situation both in the Afghan provinces and within Kabul. "I see the incidents of crime going up and there is more concern about what we are seeing in the south," he said.
"Because Kabul is quieter more people are coming here and that raises the tension level. We have had mine attacks, rocket attacks and a suicide bombing a few months ago. Unless things change the security situation will not get better and could get worse."
"It's a dangerous job. We know that. But it would be wrong not to react aggressively to the tragedy," Maj.-Gen. Leslie said.
Senior officers say the Canadian battle group has been doing just that: flooding isolated districts like the area where the deadly land mine blast occurred with more and more heavily armed patrols.
Major Jamie Morse, the deputy commander of the battle group, said yesterday that Canadian troops have a growing presence in regions where Taliban activists and al Qaeda holdouts are believed to be active.
"We're now patrolling in areas that they don't want us to patrol in and they're getting nervous."
Maj. Morse said the commanders of the Canadian force in Kabul are now assuming the mine strike was a deliberate act.
New evidence was released yesterday supporting that conclusion. A transportation case for one of the mines used in the attack was found at the site, in addition to a shipping plug which would have needed to have been removed to arm the mine.
Both the case and the plug had little dust and dirt on them and showed signs of having been lying in the open for a relatively short period of time.
A board of inquiry is expected to file a report on the incident in early November.
Maj. Morse said the attack may have been at least partly an attempt to test the Canadians, to see how they reacted to such an ambush. "Whenever they do something like this, they're probably testing [our] reactions," he said. "But I don't think we could've handled it any better, quite honestly."
Maj. Morse said Canadian patrols in rural areas outside the Afghan capital are now being led by armoured vehicles. "We're using armoured vehicles now on soft-packed roads. So the LAVs are now patrolling more in the countryside and on the softer roads and we're continuing to use Iltises in town and on hard-packed and paved roads ... where you can tell if there's been digging or re-mining."
Defence Department spokesmen said the additional armour will take at least three weeks to arrive in Afghanistan.
"The bulk of the LAVs will be in Kabul by mid-November," Captain Darren Steele said yesterday from Ottawa. "The delay will be because the crews need to get some mission-specific training,"
Maj.-Gen. Leslie said the Canadians will also continue to do at least part of their patrols on foot, which he called "nerve-wracking, but it is a job that must be done. We cannot zoom by at 30 kilometres an hour without dismounting."
© Copyright 2003 National Post
7 Oct 03
Kabul, Afghanistan
Mohammed Musa, Governor of Paghman rides on a Light Armoured Vehicle, ( LAVlll ) as it moves to pass over a bridge, reconstructed with the assistance of the Civilian Military Co-Operation Section ( CIMIC ), of the Third Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment (3 RCR) Battalion Group.
Photo: MCpl. Brian Walsh 3 RCR Battalion Group Photographer