KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Three Canadian combat engineers were killed and a fourth seriously injured early Wednesday morning when their convoy hit an improvised explosive device outside Kandahar City, the military announced Thursday.
Sgt.
Shawn Eades, the first soldier identified, Cpl. Dustin Roy Robert Joseph Wasden and Sapper Stephan
John Stock were all with Edmonton’s 12 Field Squadron, 1 Combat Engineer
Regiment. The fourth engineer, who name was not released, was taken to military hospital.
All four were attached to the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry battle group.
Only Eades, who was on his third tour of Afghanistan, was immediately identified by the Canadian Forces. He was remembered by his family and colleagues as a dedicated soldier and devoted father.
“My husband Shawn was a proud and dedicated soldier,” Lisa Schamehorn said in a statement. “He died doing what he loved – being a soldier . . . He believed in what he was doing and he knew he was making a difference for the people there.”
Eades also leaves behind two daughters, Breanna, 7 and Niya, 4, who were “the pride of Shawn’s life,” Schamehorn said. “He always had strong family values and it was difficult for him to be away, but he always knew that his family would receive great care from his extended family and from the military’s services.”
In a sombre news conference at Kandahar Airfield, Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson, commander of the Forces in Kandahar, said Eades was “respected by his subordinates, his peers and his superiors for his outstanding professionalism and his operational experience and his competence.”
Thompson also described Eades as “a devoted father who liked to share stories of his children with his colleagues and his friends.”
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The attack, which occurred at 10:30 a.m. local time Wednesday in Zhari district, about 40 kilometres west of Kandahar Airfield, brings to 93 the total number of Canadian soldiers killed while serving in Afghanistan,
Thompson said the soldiers were conducting a “route reconnaissance” mission.
“They were on their way to the site where they were going to do a reconnaissance of a route,” Thompson said. “An engineer reconnaissance team is a tight-knit unit and these men were no exception. They were a well-trained, highly motivated crew and believed in their mission. As combat engineers, they were proud, resourceful, and armed with technical knowledge they generously used in this mission to help the people of Kandahar.”
At Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Ont., Lieut. Annie Morin said the bodies of the three slain soldiers were expected to be returned to Canada Saturday evening.
In Afghanistan, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said his fighters are taking credit for the attack.
Insurgents routinely use roadside bombs to ambush NATO and International Security Assistance Forces along Afghan roads. Supply convoys and patrols are commonly targeted in such attacks, making travel by land difficult and dangerous.
“I don’t know that the Taliban are getting any stronger,” Thompson said in response to a reporter’s question Thursday. “What I would say is that they’re much more aggressive this fighting season than they’ve been in the past.”
But Thompson argued the insurgents are “not holding any of the ground they’re attacking us on.”
“So, in the case of an IED strike, they will inflict some casualties, but they don’t control the road that they inflicted the casualties on. So the net effect is zero, other than it whittles away at our resolve.”
The explosive devices have been the cause of 44 Canadian deaths, which is nearly half the total.
A Canadian diplomat and two aid workers have also been killed since Canada’s military and developmental assistance mission in that war-torn country began in 2002. Including the aid workers – Jacqueline Kirk of Outremont, Que, and Shirley Case from Williams Lake, B.C., who were ambushed on Aug. 13 – seven Canadians have died in Afghanistan this month alone.
On Aug. 9, Master Cpl. Josh Roberts, a native of Saskatchewan, died during a firefight involving a private security company in the Zhari district, west of Kandahar City. The circumstances of his death remain under investigation.
Two days later, Master Cpl. Erin Doyle of Kamloops, B.C. was killed in a firefight in the country’s Panjwaii district. His funeral was held Thursday at St. Emile Church in Legal, a small town north of Edmonton.
This has been an especially bloody week for other nations of the NATO-led military alliance as well. On Wednesday, three Polish soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb blast in Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul. And, on Monday, France suffered its greatest military loss in 25 years, when 10 of its soldiers died in a Taliban ambush east of the capital.
With files from Global News
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