Canadian soldier killed on patrol in Afghanistan
Updated Sun. Dec. 30 2007 2:28 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
A roadside bomb has killed a Canadian soldier out on routine patrol in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province.
The dead soldier has been identified as Gunner Jonathan Dion, 27, of the 5th Regiment d'Artillerie legere du Canada, which is based in Valcartier, Que.
Four others were wounded in the blast, which occurred about 9:10 a.m. local time on Sunday.
The four injured soldiers were evacuated by helicopter to the hospital at Kandahar Airfield and are in good condition.
CTV's Murray Oliver told CTV Newsnet from Kandahar that one soldier has already been released from hospital and the others are expected to make a full recovery.
They were able to call their families themselves, Oliver said.
The blast occurred in Zhari District, about 20 kilometres west of Kandahar City. The soldiers were travelling in a TLAV -- an older model of personnel carrier that has had its armour upgraded -- as part of a convoy heading back to Kandahar City for the new year.
"We are saddened by the tragic loss of our brother. We will mourn him, we will honour him and we will remember him," Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche, Canada's top military commander in Afghanistan, told reporters.
"While doing so, we will carry on with our mission of helping the people of Afghanistan find peace and stability, with the same resolve as we have always shown."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was deeply saddened by Dion's death and wished the injured soldiers a speedy recovery.
We will not forget the sacrifice made by Gunner Dion while working to make life better for others," Harper said in a statement released Sunday.
"These Canadian soldiers were working to provide security and help create the conditions needed to improve the lives of the people of Afghanistan."
Canada has 2,500 soldiers operating in southern Afghanistan as part of the NATO mission.
Dion, from Val-d'Or, Que., is the 74th Canadian soldier to die since 2002. A Canadian diplomat has also been killed.
Roadside bombs have accounted for a majority of those deaths.
"These roadside bombs have been the way that most Canadian soldiers have been killed or injured. I can tell you that the soldiers just hate them," Oliver said.
"It's very frustrating, you can imagine, for a soldier who wants to be fighting and can accept being injured in combat, to be injured while sitting in a vehicle."
Sunil Ram, an international security and defence analyst, told CTV Newsnet that there is not much more that can be done against IED attacks.
"We can stop 99 out of 100 of these things, but it's the one that gets through that will do the damage," he said on Sunday.
Ram said the Taliban were fighting a war of attrition.
"The Taliban can't realistically defeat NATO, but they can kill NATO by inches through the use of IEDs and insurgency tactics."
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, six private guards and two police officers were killed on Sunday when Taliban militants fired rocket-propelled grenades at a convoy of security contractors guarding an equipment delivery.
The attack happened along the country's main highway, 32 kilometres southwest of Kabul in Wardak province.
