Four more dead Canadians

[spring-peeper]

Massive terror attack averted: RCMP

A terror attack potentially three times more devastating than the Oklahoma City bombing has been averted, the RCMP alleged Saturday.

A counterterrorism sweep Friday resulted in the largest arrest ever made by the nation's anti-terrorism forces and raised, for the first time, the spectre of homegrown terrorists striking Canadians from within our borders.

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Mike McDonell announced the arrest of 12 Ontario men who were to appear in court later Saturday in Brampton, west of Toronto. The men ranged in age from 19 to 43, and are residents of Toronto, Mississauga and Kingston.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060603.wwarrants0603_3/BNStory/National/home

 

[spring-peeper]

Less than a week after the Taliban threatened the Canadians, we are now looking into the possibility that the Taliban have captured some of our troops.

Military probes report of abducted Cdn. soldiers

Allied forces in Afghanistan are probing a report that says an unspecified number of Canadian soldiers have been abducted in the war-torn country, Canada's Department of National Defence confirmed Wednesday.

Al-Jazeera television earlier quoted unnamed Taliban sources as saying they had abducted some Canadian soldiers.

The military is aware of the al-Jazeera news report, Department of National Defence spokesperson Jay Paxton told CTV.ca on Wednesday afternoon.

"However the Department of National Defence does not have information that would validate that report," he said.

"Further I can tell you that Task Force Afghanistan is investigating the status of personnel in Afghanistan," he said.

CTV's Steve Chao told Newsnet in a phone interview from Kandahar that the military is currently trying to ascertain all soldiers are accounted for but that they believe the reports are unsubstantiated.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060503/afghanistan_soldier_060607/20060607?hub=World

 

[spring-peeper]

To-day, they will bury Nichola Goddard in Ottawa.

She often described herself as a poster child for the Armed Forces. She often spoke of the Afghan fasination with a female soldier.

As it turns out, the Afghan history has a female war heroine - Malalai.

Instead of gloating over the death of a Canadian soldier, the Taliban knew they had suffered a public-relations setback. The fallen female warrior was a potent reminder of one of Afghanistan's greatest heroines -- Malalai of the battle of Maiwand, who seized a falling Afghan flag and rallied her countrymen to rise up against British invaders in 1880.

Now another woman, Capt. Goddard, had acted heroically in Afghanistan, and it was bound to create sympathy among Afghans who remembered the legend of Malalai. To compound their error, the Taliban had breached a tribal code.

"It's considered dishonourable among Pashtuns to kill a woman," said Major Quentin Innis, a Canadian communications strategist in Kandahar.

RIP

 

[spring-peeper]

Canadian troops going to Afghanistan tested to be 'walking blood donors'

TORONTO (CP) - For the first time since the Second World War, Canada's military is testing soon-to-be-deployed troops so they can act as "walking blood donors" in the event of mass casualties or special transfusion needs for their wounded comrades in Afghanistan.

Once in Afghanistan, authorized soldiers could be called on to donate blood in an emergency, which could then be transfused immediately into an injured colleague. An adult can donate one unit of blood every 56 days.

Currently, Canadian medical personnel in Afghanistan have only 80 units of frozen blood on hand. Depending on the severity of injury and the type of blood required - for instance AB or O-negative - even one wounded soldier could put a serious dent in that supply.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=49e66389-2645-4a7d-ad80-358f0f2f23a0&k=6444

 

[spring-peeper]

Rest in peace, Cpl. Anthony Joseph Boneca

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1152443946669&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home

 

[spring-peeper]

Not all of our dead Canadians are soldiers

B.C. man building school killed in Afghanistan
Last Updated Tue, 25 Jul 2006 13:13:30 EDT
CBC News

A Vancouver carpenter has been killed in northern Afghanistan, where he had been completing construction of a school he had been working on for the past four years.

Mike Frastacky had been building a school in Nahrin in northern Afghanistan. (CBC) Mike Frastacky had been building a school in Nahrin in northern Afghanistan. (CBC)

Mike Frastacky, 56, was shot to death on Sunday in a home he was staying at in the town of Nahrin.

His sister, Luba Frastacky of Toronto, told CBC Radio on Tuesday that Canadian Foreign Affairs officials said her brother was shot three times in the head.

She said he knew it was particularly dangerous in northern Afghanistan this summer, and that there was talk of a $10,000 bounty being offered for the death of a Westerner.

She said her brother, who had been there since mid-June, had planned to cut this year's visit short because of the danger.

Frastacky also said the Vancouver carpenter was doing what he wanted to do by building and equipping the school.

"It was his sort of mission, I think. He found a need and he filled it by giving education to all the young people in the area."

Frastacky said her brother had discovered the community while trekking in the mountains where he met a guide whose family owned property in Nahrin.

He paid for the project with his own money and by collecting small donations from friends and family.

Nearly 600 students now attend the school.

source

 

[spring-peeper]

Another Canadian soldier dies in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Just as Canadians said goodbye to two fallen soldiers, another one died and four others were injured in southern Afghanistan.

Corporal Christopher Jonathan Reid was killed Thursday in an area where Canadian soldiers have been advancing on Taliban insurgents, said Colonel Tom Putt, deputy commander of Task Force Afghanistan.

"That area west of Kandahar is known to be a Taliban area," Col. Putt said.

"That's why we're there."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060803.w3afghandead0803/BNStory/International