Suicide Attack Claims Another Canadian Soldier In Afghanistan
Posted August 11, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Another Canadian has lost his life in Afghanistan.
The latest casualty of war came in the southern region of the country, after a suicide bomber drove an explosives laden vehicle straight into a military convoy killing Edmonton-based medic Cpl. Andrew James Eykelenboom.
The initial blast was followed by a massive fire and the scope of the detonation was so fierce, it took the army hours to get the stricken soldier out of the wreckage.
“The soldier was travelling in an armoured G-Wagon light utility vehicle as part of a resupply convoy heading north from Spin Boldak to Kandahar Air Field,” explains Col. Tom Putt, deputy commander of Task Force Afghanistan. “We deeply regret the loss of a fine and dedicated soldier who died serving his country.”
There were two troop members in the wagon at the time of the explosion but they weren’t hurt.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, claimed responsibility for the attack and said the bomber was an Afghan named Mohammad Ilyas, who also died in the skirmish. Three Afghan civilians were injured.
The timing of the loss is especially tragic. It comes on the same day that the country bid farewell to another life taken on the battlefield.
Pte. Kevin Dallaire was laid to rest in the National Military Cemetery in Ottawa Friday. He was one of three Canadians who perished in a rocket attack near Kandahar on August 3rd.
Sgt. Vaughan Ingram and Cpl. Bryce Jeffrey Keller were also killed in that skirmish.
All were members of the 1st Battalion of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton.
Dallaire’s flag draped casket was carried by his comrades in arms, as his grieving family watched tearfully nearby.
Also in attendance – Deborah and Gerald Warren, the parents of Cpl. Jason Warren, who was killed July 22 and was buried in the same cemetery the day Dallaire died.
Ironically they’d come to visit their son’s burial site and weren’t even aware there was another ceremony underway.
The latest Canadian death, the seventh in the last nine days, brings the terrible toll to 26 in the war torn nation. All but one of those – a diplomat – were soldiers.
26 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002:
2006
Aug. 11 — Cpl. Andrew James Eykelenboom of 1st Field Ambulance, based in Edmonton, killed in a suicide attack.
Aug. 9 — Master Cpl. Jeffrey Scott Walsh of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, based in Shilo, Man., killed in apparent accidental discharge of a rifle.
Aug. 5 — Master Cpl. Raymond Arndt of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, killed when large truck collided head-on with a Canadian G-Wagon that was part of a resupply convoy, about 35 kilometres southeast of Kandahar.
Aug. 3 — Cpl. Christopher Jonathan Reid, 34, of the 1st Batallion of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton, killed by a roadside bomb. Three other members of the same batallion killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack by Taliban forces west of Kandahar: Sgt. Vaughn Ingram, 35, Cpl. Bryce Jeffrey Keller and Pte. Kevin Dallaire, 22.
July 22 — Cpl. Francisco Gomez, 44, of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton, and Cpl. Jason Patrick Warren, 29, of the Black Watch, the Royal Highland Regiment of Canada, based in Montreal, killed when a car packed with explosives rammed their armoured vehicle.
July 9 — Cpl. Anthony Joseph Boneca, 21, a reservist from the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment based in Thunder Bay, Ont., killed in a firefight near the village of Pashmol west of Kandahar City.
May 17 — Capt. Nichola Goddard, an artillery officer based in Shila, Man., with 1st Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, killed in a Taliban ambush during a battle in the Panjwai region. She was first Canadian woman to be killed in action while serving in a combat role.
April 22 — Cpl. Matthew Dinning of Richmond Hill, Ont., stationed with 2nd Canadian Mechanized Brigade in Petawawa, Ont.; Bombardier Myles Mansell of Victoria, Lieut. William Turner of Toronto, stationed in Edmonton and Cpl. Randy Payne, born in Lahr, Germany, stationed at CFB Wainright, Alta., all killed when their G-Wagon patrol vehicle was destroyed by a roadside bomb near Gumbad, north of Kandahar.
March 29 — Pte. Robert Costall of Edmonton, a machine-gunner, killed in a firefight with the Taliban insurgents in Sangin district of Helmand province, north of Kandahar.
March 2 — Cpl. Paul Davis of Bridgewater, N.S., and Master Cpl. Timothy Wilson of Grande Prairie, Alta., killed when their armoured vehicle ran off the road in the Kandahar area.
Jan. 15 — Glyn Berry, a British-born Canadian diplomat who had served with the Foreign Affairs Department since 1977, killed in a suicide bombing near Kandahar.
2005
Nov. 24 — Pte. Braun Scott Woodfield, born in Victoria and raised in Eastern Passage, N.S., killed when his armoured rolled over near Kandahar.
2004
Jan. 27 — Cpl. Jamie Brendan Murphy, 26, of Conception Harbour, Nfld., killed in suicide bombing while on patrol near Kabul.
2003
Oct. 2 — Sgt. Robert Alan Short, 42, of Fredericton, and Cpl. Robbie Christopher Beerenfenger, 29, of Ottawa, killed in a roadside bombing southwest of Kabul.
2002
April 18 (April 17 in Canada) — Sgt. Marc D. Leger, 29, of Lancaster, Ont., Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer, 24, of Montreal, Pte. Richard Green, 21, of Mill Cove, N.S., and Pte. Nathan Smith, 27, of Tatamagouche, N.S., all killed when when a U.S. F-16 fighter mistakenly bombed the Canadians as they were on a pre-dawn training exercise. Eight other Canadians were wounded in the friendly-fire incident.
