2 Canadian soldiers injured in Afghanistan
Last Updated: Thursday, September 27, 2007 | 12:11 PM ET
CBC News
Two Canadians were injured Thursday morning when militants opened fire on a group of soldiers helping to set up a police post in southern Afghanistan.
The soldiers were hit by rocket-propelled grenades and machine gun fire while working alongside Afghan police officers in the Panjwaii district west of Kandahar City, the Canadian military told CBC News.
One soldier was shot in the leg, while the other was hit by shrapnel in the leg.
Both soldiers are being treated at a military hospital in Kandahar, while one of them may need to be transferred to Germany for more extensive treatment, CBC's David Common said, reporting from Kandahar.
The soldiers' names and hometowns have not been released.
"Certainly, it's been a very violent week for Canadian soldiers," Common said.
On Monday, Cpl. Nathan Hornburg, 24, of Calgary was killed by a mortar shell as he made repairs to a Leopard tank in the Panjwaii district.
Four other soldiers were injured in that attack.
A fifth soldier was seriously injured on Tuesday after militants attacked a group of soldiers and police officers conducting a patrol.
Seventy-one Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed since Canada began its mission to Afghanistan in 2002, in the wake of the U.S. invasion that ousted the Taliban government.
Canada currently has about 2,500 soldiers deployed in Afghanistan, mostly in the south, as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
