Afghan Bombing Causes Two More Coalition Casualties
Posted July 24, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Just one day after a pair of Canadian soldiers was killed in a suicide bombing, coalition forces in Afghanistan suffered two more casualties when a car packed with explosives was detonated near a patrol Monday.
A joint Afghan National Army and coalition patrol was driving west along Kandahar’s infamous Highway One when they came across a vehicle that appeared to be broken down. But it wasn’t, and as the patrol passed the car exploded.
“It detonated, causing two coalition casualties,” said coalition spokesman Maj. Scott Lundy.
The two soldiers, believed to be American, were taken by helicopter to the multinational hospital at Kandahar Air Field. Their conditions were described as serious but non-life threatening.
The blast occurred in Daman district, about seven kilometres east of Kandahar City where two days earlier Canadian Cpl. Francisco Gomez of Edmonton and Cpl. Jason Warren from Montreal died when a suicide bomber drove his car up to their armoured vehicle and triggered an explosion. Sources say once the suicide attacker reached the side of the vehicle there was no time to react.
They were the 18th and 19th Canadian soldiers to be killed in Afghanistan since early 2002.
A second suicide attacker, this one on foot, detonated a vest on close to where the Canadians were hit a short time later, killing eight Afghan civilians and injured dozens more.
Gomez’s father, George, said his son was to return home in a matter of weeks, and that he seemed happy when they last spoke a week earlier.
The 44-year-old Gomez joined the Armed Forces right from high school more than 20 years ago, following in the footsteps of his older brother, Richard, who is stationed with the air force in Halifax.
The bodies of Gomez and Warren are expected to return home Tuesday.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, hundreds of Taliban fighters attacked a western Afghan government building in Farah province with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.
Three police officers were killed and seven wounded in one of the militia’s boldest strikes.
The attack could reflect a surge by militants to expand their fight against Afghan and coalition forces beyond insurgency-wracked southern and eastern provinces.
