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  • Bomber kills Canadian in Kabul

    Bomber kills Canadian in Kabul

    KABUL, Afghanistan -- A suicide bombing in Kabul has killed one Canadian soldier and wounded three others, a spokesman for the NATO-led security force said.

    One Afghan civilian also died, and eight other people were treated for injuries at local hospitals, police and doctors told The Associated Press.

    The suicide bomber reportedly threw himself on a vehicle that was part of a small International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) patrol convoy operating in the Afghan capital.

    Ali Jan Askaryar, head of police in the western district of Kabul where the blast struck, said the Canadians were in a three-vehicle patrol when they were attacked at about 8:30 a.m. (0400 GMT) Tuesday.

    "There was a bump in the road, and when they slowed down to pass over it a terrorist jumped on one of the vehicles and blew himself up," Askaryar told AP.

    International troops and local police cordoned off the scene, about 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) from the main Canadian base in Kabul and close to a war-ruined former royal palace.

    NATO took over command of the multinational peacekeeping force from Germany and the Netherlands in August.

    The force is made up of about 5,500 troops, largely Canadian and German soldiers.

    The Afghan government has little control in most of the country's 32 provinces, where governors often rule like warlords with private militias more than two years after a U.S.-led force removed the Taliban from power.

    Taliban and al Qaeda rebels have been launching increasingly bold assaults in recent months, raiding police stations, killing aid workers and confronting U.S. troops in growing numbers.

    Just this month alone, 60 people have been killed by ongoing violence, AP said.

    Many of the attacks have taken place in the south and east of the country near the border with Pakistan.

    Afghan and Western officials have long complained that insurgents have found a safe haven in Pakistan and cross the border frequently to launch attacks.

    In June, four German soldiers were killed and 29 wounded in a suicide attack on their bus, one of the most serious post-Taliban attacks in the capital.

    A mine explosion killed two Canadian troops in October.

    http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapc...ths/index.html
    "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

  • #2
    Cpl Jamie Brendan Murphy, Parachute Company, 3rd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment.

    God Bless.

    Comment


    • #3
      Tuesday » January 27 » 2004

      Suicide bomber suspected of using artillery round or mortar bombs

      Francine Dube
      CanWest News Service


      Tuesday, January 27, 2004

      CAMP JULIEN, Afghanistan - The suicide bomber who killed one Canadian soldier and injured three others was likely wearing an artillery round or mortar bombs strapped to his chest when he ran towards the second of two jeeps in a convoy headed into Kabul on Tuesday, Lt.-Col. Don Denne, commanding officer of the Royal Canadian Regiment, 3rd Battalion, says.

      The explosion killed Cpl. Jamie Brendan Murphy, 26, a strapping Newfoundlander with a wicked sense of humour, who was due to return home at the end of next week. Three other soldiers were injured.

      “All the troops liked him,” said Sgt. Bruce Rhodenizer, a fellow Parachute Company soldier and one of the first to arrive on the scene following the explosion. “If anybody needed anything he was right there. He was happy-go-lucky, and quite comical.”

      Murphy’s commanding officer, Maj. John Vass, was riding in the first jeep, with an interpreter in the back seat. Murphy was in the jumpseat, facing rearward, in the second jeep with three other soldiers who were injured.

      The vehicles had slowed down for a bump in the road when an explosion sheared through what had been until then, a typical Kabul morning. The jeep Murphy was riding in was left black and smoking.

      Murphy died instantly. Lt. Jason Matthew Feyko, 30, of Peterborough, Ont., suffered shrapnel damage to his arms and legs. Splinters lodged in his face. He underwent surgery in the German hospital at Camp Warehouse and was flown to hospital in Germany later in the day.

      Cpl. Jeremy Gerald MacDonald, 30, of Burnt Island, Nfld., also sustained shrapnel wounds and underwent surgery. Cpl. Richard Michael Newman, 23, of Hartland, N.B., was transferred to Camp Warehouse in Kabul, suffering from shrapnel wounds to his extremities.

      One Afghan, driving a white Toyota Corolla near the blast, was killed. His passenger, a French civilian, was wounded. Eight other Afghans were also injured.

      Denne said shrapnel from the blast also took out windows and punctured holes in a small bus carrying 25 passengers. A mortar bomb was found undetonated, stuck into a wall.

      “If we were targeted, he didn’t care about anything around him,” said Denne.

      The suicide bombing is the first of its kind in Afghanistan, according to Denne and Maj.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, deputy commander of the International Security Assistance Force in the war-torn nation. The Taliban, which previously claimed to have sent 60 suicide bombers into Kabul, has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack, but the Canadians are not convinced the Taliban are responsible.

      It could also be the work, they say, of al-Qaida or Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin, founded by one of the most notorious rightwing Islamic leaders of Afghanistan, Gulbuddin Hikmatyar. The group has been linked to Osama bin Laden.

      Both officers said it was not likely a retaliation for the raid Canadians undertook with Kabul city police last Sunday.

      “My belief is that it’s linked to the progress that’s being made here in Kabul,” said Leslie.

      At a press conference Tuesday night, Leslie said Canadians and ISAF will not be scaling back their operations as a result of the attack. ISAF is committed to sending provincial reconstruction teams into the more remote regions of the country to rebuild infrastructure.

      “Obviously this has touched all of us very deeply,” said Leslie. “Our hearts go out to the family of Cpl. Murphy, but we are here to do a job and we will do it. We will not run away. We are not scared. We’re professional soldiers.”

      The soldiers were riding in Iltis jeeps, the same type of vehicle that Sgt. Robert Short and Cpl. Robbie Beerenfenger were riding in when they were killed by a mine in October.

      Minutes after the blast, a convoy of three Canadian armoured vehicles returning from a trip to the airport happened down the same road, said Vass. He flagged them down and asked them to help secure the busy and now-congested site, which had a couple of fruit vendors on either side of the road and a little wood-working shop. People were thronging forward, shoulder to shoulder, straining to see what had happened.
      Two armoured ambulances from Camp Julien carried away the injured.

      Rhodenizer, who had been out on patrol down the same road only minutes before and was only four kilometres away when the blast happened, couldn’t bear the sight of his dead comrade in the jeep. People were gawking. He asked his Afghan interpreter for the blanket he wears and used it to cover Murphy.
      “It could have been anybody that could have got it today,” he said. He will be one of the soldiers to accompany Murphy’s body back to Canada. The group will leave today and is expected to reach Canada sometime Thursday.

      Vass remained at the scene until the body was removed and the jeeps were cleared away. Until the explosion, he said, it had been a normal day on the streets of Kabul.

      Murphy, he said, was “extremely jovial.” He always had a smile on his face and was a nice guy to talk to.
      “He was just a gentleman .. a good soldier, kind-hearted and he did his job well,” said Vass.

      © Copyright 2004 CanWest News Service

      Copyright © 2004 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest Global Communications Corp. All rights reserved.
      Optimized for browser versions 4.0 and higher.

      Comment


      • #4
        My condolences to his family and my grateful thanks to him for defending the West from terrorists.

        Comment


        • #5
          "Cpl Jamie Brendan Murphy, Parachute Company, 3rd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment.

          God Bless."

          Couldn't have said it better myself......other than thank you for making the ultimate sacrifice to make the lives of Canadians, Americans and our other allies safe.
          Facts to a liberal is like Kryptonite to Superman.

          -- Larry Elder

          Comment


          • #6
            Smilingassasin,

            You can sign the Book at 39 Canadian Brigade Group HQ or at the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada. The Dept of National Defence Recruiting Centres can also forward any cards, notes, letters you may want to send to the RCR's Rear Echelon to be copied and forwarded to the families.

            Comment


            • #7
              God Bless


              UK soldier dies in Afghan bombing
              A British soldier has been killed in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in the city's second suicide bomb in two days.
              The blast injured four other UK soldiers, two of them seriously, and an Afghan interpreter. Names are not being released until families have been told.

              The British army confirmed it was a suicide attack shortly after the Taleban said they carried it out.

              A suicide bombing on Tuesday killed a Canadian member of the international peacekeeping force in Kabul.


              That, too, was claimed by the ousted Taleban, who have recently issued warnings of a new wave of attacks against peacekeepers and other foreigners in Afghanistan.


              We have had a fatality in Afghanistan - the total number is one fatality and four injured
              UK Defence Ministry spokesman
              About 350 British troops are in Kabul as part of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).
              The commander of British troops in the city said the attack, using at least 200 pounds of explosives, looked carefully planned.

              Colonel Mike Griffiths said there had been a single suicide bomber, travelling in a taxi with Kabul number plates.

              Taleban claim

              The British troops were in lightly protected Land Rovers, on a main road in the city's eastern suburbs. As the lead driver overtook the taxi, it blew up.


              Most Afghans equate the US-led foreign troops in Afghanistan with the Soviet occupation forces
              Taleban spokesman Hamid Agha
              The colonel said the blast had catapulted debris over a wide area.
              Most of the casualties were in the lead Land Rover, but some in the second vehicle were lightly injured.

              The BBC's Andrew North in Kabul saw rubble strewn across the tarmac. Eyewitnesses nearby at the time of the explosion spoke of seeing human remains scattered around the blast site.

              The Taleban's top spokesman told the BBC his movement had carried out the attack.

              "No patriotic Afghan supports occupation of Afghanistan by foreign forces," Hamid Agha said.

              An Isaf spokesman denied there had been a second explosion outside a German military facility on the other side of the city.

              'Switch in tactics'

              Kabul is one of the few places in Afghanistan considered secure enough for foreigners to operate, although there have been a number of attacks there.

              The commander of Canadian peacekeepers in Afghanistan said Tuesday's bomb which killed one of his soldiers showed opponents were changing tactics.

              December and January saw a huge security operation in Kabul when delegates from all over Afghanistan met at a grand council (loya jirga) to draw up a new constitution for the country.

              Despite the security there were a number of explosions blamed on the Taleban during the meeting.

              Story from BBC NEWS:
              http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...ia/3436405.stm

              Published: 2004/01/28 19:34:39 GMT

              © BBC MMIV

              Comment


              • #8
                It is with very deep regret that the Ministry of Defence has to confirm that one British soldier was killed, and four soldiers injured, by an apparent suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan on 28 January 2004.

                Private Jonathan Kitulagoda, who died, was aged 23 and came from Plymouth where he was a student. A member of the Rifle Volunteers, a Territorial Army battalion, he was serving in Kabul with the International Security Assistance Force.

                Lieutenant Colonel Ian Blewett, the Commanding Officer of The Rifle Volunteers, said:

                "It was with immense sadness that we learnt of the death of one of our soldiers, and injuries suffered by his colleagues, while on peacekeeping duties in Afghanistan. My thoughts, and those of the entire Battalion, are very much with Private Kitulagoda's family, and the families of those injured, at this dreadful time.

                "Jonathan Kitulagoda was a young man of 23 who played a full and professional role as a TA infantryman, and was a popular and committed member of E (Devon and Dorset) Company. Together with his fellow soldiers, he volunteered for duty in Afghanistan, helping the efforts to bring peace and help ordinary Afghanis forge a better society."

                The Rifle Volunteers' Regimental Headquarters is at Wyvern Barracks, Exeter, and can be contacted on 01980 673329. The media are asked to respect the families' privacy at this difficult time.

                Comment


                • #9
                  I am thoroughly disgusted!



                  Wed, February 4, 2004




                  Defence minister checking report suicide bomber was son of Canadian citizen

                  By STEPHEN THORNE



                  Minister of Defence David Pratt, right, speaks to reporters at a news conference at National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa on recently. (CP Archive/Simon Hayter)
                  OTTAWA (CP) - Defence Minister David Pratt said Wednesday the government is investigating a report that the suicide bomber who killed a Canadian soldier last week in Kabul was the son of a Canadian citizen linked to Al-Qaida.

                  An Agence France-Presse report cited a Taliban spokesman in naming the bomber as Mohammad Abdullah, and said that he was the son of a Canadian citizen from Egypt named Abdul Rehman, who was killed by the Pakistan army in October. Cpl. Jamie Murphy of Conception Harbour, Nfld., was killed along with an Afghan bystander by a suicide bomber about a kilometre from the main Canadian base in Kabul on Jan. 27.

                  "I can't confirm anything at this point," Pratt said outside the Commons on Wednesday. "We're going to need a lot more evidence and a lot more details from the folks in Afghanistan. Our officials are looking into it."

                  Pratt said Canadian officials take any information from Taliban members "with a grain of salt."

                  "We want to check things out," he said. "Obviously that investigation hasn't been completed at this point."


                  Taliban spokesman Mohammad Saiful Adel said the father of the suicide bomber was an al-Qaida member who fought against the Soviets and spent a lot of his life in Pakistan and in Afghanistan.

                  "He was killed during a recent operation by the Pakistan army against the village of Angoor Adda, in the Pakistani tribal zone," the spokesman said in the Agence France-Presse report from Kabul.

                  Canadian officials have confirmed that human remains were collected from the blast site in Kabul, where the Canadian was killed and three of his fellow fighters wounded along with numerous Afghan civilians.

                  Allied forces run DNA tests on dead enemy as a matter of routine. The FBI and U.S. military intelligence have extensive data banks of DNA on suspected terrorists.

                  Afghan authorities and the International Security Assistance Force, of which Canada is part, have not revealed details of the suicide bomber except to say he had rigged his bomb with mortars and artillery as well as explosives.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Colonel,

                    Do convey my sincerest condolences to the fallen soldier's family and the unit.


                    "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

                    I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

                    HAKUNA MATATA

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Sir,

                      I thank you on the behalf of the regt. Your words has been forwarded to the regiment's support echelon with instructions to pass onto the family through the Chaplin.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        My condolences to the families of Cpl. Jamie Brendan Murphy.

                        God Bless!
                        A grain of wheat eclipsed the sun of Adam !!

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Jay,

                          How would like your words to be signed to the regiment? Just Jay? You can Private Message me if you want.

                          BM,

                          I've already forwarded your words and signed your real name.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Officer of Engineers
                              Cpl Jamie Brendan Murphy, Parachute Company, 3rd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment.

                              God Bless.
                              RIP, dident the Canadians abolish their airborne troops after Somalia?

                              Comment

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