A Canadian soldier is downplaying the injuries he sustained during a militant attack in Afghanistan on the weekend, dismissing his wounds as "superficial."

2nd Lieut. Kelly Catton, a 22-year-old from the Saskatchewan town of Dundurn, was hurt when militants attacked a Canadian convoy in Kandahar on Saturday night.

Catton was travelling in a lightly armoured Mercedes-Benz Gelaendewagen (known as a "G Wagon") that was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

2nd Lieut. Kelly Catton in Kandahar Feb. 26, 2006 (CBC Photo: Stephen Puddicombe)
2nd Lieut. Kelly Catton in Kandahar Feb. 26, 2006 (CBC Photo: Stephen Puddicombe)

Both of his legs were injured.

However, Catton did not appear bothered as he breakfasted with friends on Sunday morning at Camp Nathan Smith, a small Canadian base in Kandahar that houses the provincial reconstruction team.

"I got peppered a little bit with some shrapnel," Catton told reporters at the base.

A \
A "G-Wagon" in Kandahar, like the vehicle that was fired on. (CBC Photo: Stephen Puddicombe)

He limped but was able to hop on one foot to demonstrate his health as he joked with television crews.

"It's fairly minor, all superficial stuff."

Catton, who comes from the Saskatchewan town of Dundurn, would later undergo X-rays of both legs at the main coalition base in Kandahar Airfield.

The troops were making a routine trip between the two bases when insurgents fired two rocket-propelled grenades at about 10:30 p.m. local time.

The second rocket missed the vehicles.

The attack came in a month when Canada has greatly boosted its troop deployment in Afghanistan. It currently has about 2,200 troops in Kandahar.

On Feb. 24, a battle group from Canada's Princess Patricia's Light Infantry took over frontline duties in Kandahar province from a U.S. task force.

Canadian personnel have weathered a number of attacks in recent months, including a deadly bombing in Kandahar in mid-January that killed a Canadian diplomat and seriously injured three soldiers.

Three other Canadian soldiers were injured in the city on Dec. 12, 2005, when a bomb detonated under their G Wagon. Two of them suffered broken bones.