2 CANADIAN SOLDIERS KILLED IN AFGANI AMBUSH

Two Canadian soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan on Saturday after militants ambushed them with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire.

Two soldiers were also wounded Saturday afternoon in the battle in Kandahar province, Canadian military officials said. The soldiers are in stable condition and their injuries are not considered life-threatening.

'The Taliban don't like roads because roads mean progress,' said Brig.-Gen. David Fraser. 'Whatever they destroy, we will rebuild.'(CBC)The soldiers were working on a road that would offer safer passage from the volatile Panjwaii district to Kandahar when they were attacked. The road, Highway 1, is often referred to by Canadian soldiers as "Ambush Alley."

"The operational report we're getting is that it was a single rocket-propelled grenade that hit one of our strongpoints," said Col. Fred Lewis, the deputy commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan.

The soldiers' identities and hometowns were not released.


'Whatever they destroy, we will rebuild'

The deaths of the soldiers brings the number of Canadian military fatalities in Afghanistan to 42.
The attack occurred in the same area around the road where several Canadian soldiers have been killed in recent weeks. Taliban militants have been stepping up attacks in the country's south, particularly in Kandahar and Helmand provinces.

"The Taliban don't like roads because roads mean progress," said Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, the Canadian and NATO commander in southern Afghanistan, in a news conference at Kandahar airbase Saturday after the attack.

"That progress will be challenged every day by that organization called the Taliban, who wants to take it down. Whatever they destroy, we will rebuild."

Canada has more than 2,000 troops in the Kandahar area who are working with NATO to fight Taliban forces.

The latest deaths came on the same day as more than 300 mourners gathered in Newfoundland at a funeral for Sgt. Craig Gillam.

Gillam and another Canadian soldier, Cpl. Robert Mitchell, were killed on Oct. 3 in a similar attack just west of Kandahar City.

Last Updated: Saturday, October 14, 2006 9:41 PM ET
CBC News