troung

Tuesday, November 21, 2006 | Updated at 5:33 PM EST

Canadian soldier severely injured
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Five weeks of relative calm were shattered Tuesday by a landmine explosion in the Panjawaii district of Kandahar province that sent two Canadian soldiers to hospital.

Cpl. Michael Barnewall suffered "severe lower body injuries" according to Canadian Forces spokesman Lt.-Cmdr. Kris Phillips.


"His injuries would be very much in line with what one would expect from stepping on or having triggered an anti-personnel device," Phillips told reporters at Kandahar Air Field. "Lower extremity and a relatively serious but non-life threatening injury," he added.


Barnewall had undergone emergency surgery at the base and was to be transported to Germany for further treatment and eventually home to Canada said Phillips. The second victim, who has not been identified, received minor injuries and was expected to return to active duty in the near future.


The two men, from 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment based in Petawawa, Ont. were on foot patrol along Route Summit in the Pashmul area about 25 kilometres west of Kandahar


The road cuts a north-south strip between government centres in the Panjwaii-Zhari regions.


"As you are probably aware with all the rain we've had in the past little while, it's not too uncommon to have mines that may have been laid a long time ago or even recently," said Phillips.


"Mines shift around as the mud moves, as embankments collapse -- so it's undetermined to this point as to whether it was new or old, but it certainly seems to fall within the anti-personnel category," he said.


Estimates of the number of landmines and unexploded bombs and shells littering Afghanistan after more than two decades of war range from 600,000 to 10 million.


It was the first time Canadian troops had been injured since Oct. 16 when a suicide bomber rammed his car into a Canadian resupply convoy in Kandahar. The attack killed three Afghan civilians and wounded at least four. A Canadian soldier was slightly injured in the blast.


Two days prior to that, Sgt. Darcy Tedford, 32, 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, along with Pte. Blake Williamson, were killed while patrolling a road west of Kandahar when their unit was ambushed by Taliban insurgents who fired a flurry of rocket-propelled grenades and small arms.


"I won't say it's just a matter of time before something like this does happen," said Phillips.


"However, for an incident to occur in the Pashmul area? It's not unexpected. The area is fraught with risks of different kinds and varieties. Mines just happen to be one of them."


Forty-two Canadians have died in action in Afghanistan, while more than 200 have been wounded.

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To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway