Soldiers and dog Injured

Soldiers Injured Near Kandahar City

Tuesday, March 20, 2007
ZHARI DISTRICT, Afghanistan
Just hours after the governor of Kandahar province urged village elders to reject the Taliban, a bomb exploded in this troubled district west of Kandahar City, wounding a Canadian soldier, severely injuring a civilian dog handler and killing his dog. “The best way to ensure your own security is to stop supporting Taliban activity,” Asadullah Khalid told almost 200 district elders gathered for a special meeting in the village of Pasab. “Don’t let them in.” But somebody apparently did let them in, or, at the very least, did nothing to get them out. Just four hours after Khalid’s speech, a Canadian patrol set off a homemade land mine, or improvised explosive device, near the neighbouring village of Amadkhan, 36 kilometers west of Kandahar City. Both the Canadian and the dog handler, who is employed by the U.S.-based company, American K-9, were flown by helicopter to the Canadian-led hospital at Kandahar Airfield Base where they are being treated. Lieut. John Nethercott, a spokesman for the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, said the soldier sustained "non-threatening injuries," while the dog handler was "very seriously injured." "The next of kin of both the soldier and the dog handler have been notified," Nethercott said. The explosion was actually the second of the day. At noon a Canadian armoured Coyote reconnaissance vehicle hit an IED near Ahmadkhan, a village west of Kandahar City, during a patrol. The blast damaged the vehicle but did not injure any soldiers. After the disabled vehicle was recovered, a team- a second team, with the bomb- detecting dog, was sent out to the scene to determine if there were any other IEDs in the area and inadvertently triggered the second bomb. the dog was searching for explosives near a village about 36 kilometres west of Kandahar City when the roadside bomb exploded.