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Three New Canadian Deaths Confirmed in Afghanistan Bombings

Posted on: Thursday, 3 August 2006, 15:00 CDT

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Canadian government spokesman confirms three NATO soldiers killed in southern Afghan rocket attack were Canadian.

In addition, Cpl. Christopher Reid of Truro, N.S., died in an area where Canadian soldiers have been advancing on Taliban insurgents, said Col. Tom Putt, deputy commander of Task Force Afghanistan.

"That area west of Kandahar is known to be a Taliban area," Putt said. "That's why we're there."

Reid, with the 1st Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry based in Edmonton, was the 20th soldier killed since Canadians moved into Afghanistan in 2002. He was the 12th to die in the last six months.

NATO reported mid-Thursday that three NATO soldiers were killed, and six were wounded by suspected Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan. There was no immediate word whether there were additional Canadian fatalities among the three dead.

Reid was remembered Thursday as an avid outdoorsman who loved being a soldier and was eager to get to Afghanistan, said Sgt. Mike McNeil, a friend who'd known Reid since they were in the militia together in Truro in the early 1990s.

"Chris was very excited to go. Very excited. He was actually disappointed that he had missed some previous trips to Afghanistan," McNeil recalled from Halifax.

"He was very proud to be in the army, an excellent soldier and he was probably one of the most outgoing people I've ever met."

Speaking in Cornwall, Ont., Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered the country's condolences to Reid's family but pledged to stand behind Canada's mission in Afghanistan.

"What the men and women in harm's way want and need to know at moments like this is that the government and Canadians stand behind their mission," Harper said.

"Through good times and bad, this government will honour their sacrifice, we will stand behind their mission and we are proud of the work that they are doing."

Reid died overnight when a Canadian Light Armoured Vehicle, or LAV-3, was struck by a roadside bomb.

Another soldier in the vehicle was injured in the attack, suffering non-life threatening injuries. A second roadside bomb exploded a short while later, hitting another LAV-3, and injuring three other Canadian soldiers.

All suffered non-life threatening wounds.

Both attacks happened just hours after a memorial service was held in Montreal for Cpl. Jason Warren.

He and Cpl. Francisco Gomez of Edmonton died July 22 when a suicide bomber detonated a car filled with explosives beside their Bison armoured vehicle.

Gomez was interred Thursday at the Beechwood National Military Cemetery in Ottawa. Warren was to be interred later in the day at the same cemetery.

McNeil remembered Reid as a larger-than-life character.

"Chris was always one of those guys who I thought was going to outlive everybody. He was tough, fearless," he said.

His death came amid another day of carnage in Afghanistan.

A suicide bomber in a car blew himself up in a crowded town market in southern Afghanistan near where NATO troops were on patrol. Twenty-one civilians were killed.

Thirteen people were injured in the blast at the market in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar province, said provincial government spokesman Dawood Ahmadi.

Some of the victims were children, said Interior Ministry spokesman Yousef Stanezai.

Interim Liberal leader Bill Graham said the latest Canadian death underscores the dangers of the Afghanistan mission.

"I think we have to be constantly explaining to Canadians why we're risking the lives of our young people there," Graham said St. John's, N.L. "We knew this was going to be a very tough mission."

He added he still believes Canadian soldiers belong in the war-torn country.

"I believe very strongly that they're doing the right thing, and I think Canadians, given an opportunity, would believe that, too," he said.

Source: Canadian Press

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