Saturday, July 22, 2006

Just In: 2 Canadian soldiers killed and 8 wounded in Afghanistan suicide attack



attacker drove a car packed with explosives into a coalition vehicle in Kandahar City.
The attack came around 5:30pm local time and it's by far the largest single-day number of casualties Canada has suffered in Afghanistan.
Shortly after first blast, a second suicide bomber approached a crowd of people on foot and detonated his vest, killing seven Afghans and wounding 30 civilians. Both attackers died, but no coaltion members are believed to have been hit with the second explosion.
Maj. Scott Lundy, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition forces in Kandahar, confirmed that a coalition convoy was attacked by a suicide car bomber and that there were casualties among soldiers in one of the vehicles, but wouldn't release names.
"This does show that the Taliban even have complete disregard for the life of ordinary Afghans and it's a sad moment," Lundy said.
The wounded soldiers were evacuated to the Kandahar Airfield's multinational hospital with what a coalition official described as non-life-threatening injuries. He refused to disclose the nationality or the total number of troops injured.
A purported Taliban spokesman has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The attacks come just as Canadian troops were returning from more than two weeks of exhaustive fighting west of Kandahar.