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U.S. soldiers killed in blast

Troops were under Canada's command

By: Matthew Fisher

Posted: 01/5/2010 11:36 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

DARRYL DYCK / THE CANADIAN PRESS Enlarge Image

Military pallbearers carry Lt. Andrew Nuttall’s casket to a hearse after funeral services in Victoria on Monday.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Four American soldiers under Canadian command have been killed in southern Afghanistan, the first U.S. troops killed by enemy action there in the new year.

The IED strike occurred Sunday in the volatile Zhari district of Kandahar province.

Enlarge Image

Andrew Nuttall (DND / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

News of the explosion came as military officials revealed that the blast that killed journalist Michelle Lang and four Canadian soldiers last Wednesday was so massive that the 23-ton armoured vehicle that they were riding in was turned upside down and landed facing in the opposite direction.

"The vehicle flipped completely on its top about 10 metres away from the crater, off the road," Lt.-Col. Roch Pelletier, chief of operations for the Canadian brigade in Kandahar, said in an interview Monday.

"They probably managed to put the (improvised explosive device) under the road by digging a tunnel. It was something that was put in place a few days earlier. It was not a hasty IED, as we call them. It was deliberately planned ahead and took a long time to place ... They dug it, they placed it properly. It was all set up."

The blast scene, where the city gives way to countryside, was a bucolic place on Monday, with flocks of sheep and goats wandering around.

The crater created by the explosion -- which may have been as much as 20 metres wide and several metres deep -- had been mostly filled in and all other evidence of the blast had already been taken away by Canadian troops.

Although the Taliban would have had no way of knowing, last Wednesday's patrol was not part of a combat operation but had been transporting soldiers involved in short-term projects to create employment and civilians from other Canadian agencies who do longer projects.

The four Americans killed on Sunday were honoured Monday during a ramp ceremony at Kandahar Airfield. No further details were released pending notification of next of kin.

Unlike the rules governing Canadian ramp ceremonies, U.S. Defence Dept. regulations prohibit journalists from covering the solemn rituals.

About 2,000 American soldiers have been brought under the command of Canadian Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard.

-- Canwest News Service / The Assocated Press

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