| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan |
| Roadside bomb kills 6 Canadian soldiers |
| 2007-04-08 |
| Six Canadian soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan on Sunday when their vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb, a coalition spokesman said. At least two soldiers were injured. It was the worst single incident for the 33,000-strong NATO multinational force in several months of fighting Taliban insurgents. The Canadian defense ministry later said on its Web site the incident happened west of Kandahar city, in the heartland of support for the Taliban. Canada's main base is in Kandahar. About 5,000 NATO and Afghan troops are engaged in a major offensive, Operation Achilles, in Helmand province in the south, the opium heartland of the world's biggest producer. British and Canadian troops make up the bulk of coalition forces in the south of the country. Earlier in the day, one NATO soldier was killed and another injured by a similar bomb in another part of the volatile south, a NATO spokeswoman said. She did not say where the second attack took place. Almost all NATO'S combat activities in Afghanistan are being conducted by U.S., British, Canadian and Dutch soldiers in the south and east, bordering Pakistan. Britain has said it will send another 1,400 soldiers soon -- making its deployment in Afghanistan greater than in Iraq. The United States has also committed an extra 3,200 soldiers. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has nearly quadrupled within the last three years, largely as a result of U.S. and British reinforcements, and the transfer of U.S. troops from a separate U.S.-led coalition to ISAF. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |