Fallen soldiers mourned - 1

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — Comrades carried the latest three dead Canadian soldiers onto a plane bound for home Sunday night, in a ceremony delayed by Taliban rocket attacks. And as the bodies of Cpl. Thomas James Hamilton, Pte. John Michael Roy Curwin and Pte. Justin Peter Jones were being prepared Sunday for the flight to Canada, the Taliban took credit for killing them, and promised more Canadian deaths. Canada has now lost 103 soldiers in the Afghan war since 2002. The three men died Saturday morning when a blast from a large improvised explosive device (IED) struck their armoured vehicle within a kilometre of the site on Highway 1 where three Canadian soldiers were killed by an IED eight days earlier. Hamilton, on his third tour in Afghanistan, Curwin and Jones on their first, were members of the force-protection unit for the Canadian Provincial Reconstruction Team, the civilian-military organization responsible for carrying out development projects in Kandahar province.

“They all believed in the mission that they were committed to,” said Canadian Brig-Gen. Denis Thompson, commander of NATO forces in Kandahar province. “They proved this every day, by putting their lives on the line.” Hamilton, who had served in Haiti as well as twice before in Afghanistan, was the first person to step forward when a job needed to be done, Thompson said. “His first love was his daughter. She was his pride and joy,” Thompson said. “Hammy was an outdoorsman, he loved to hunt and fish and to barbecue.” Curwin was the “quintessential family man,” Thompson said. “He was a dedicated dad to his three children and he always said that his wife . . . was his best friend.” Jones loved to learn and frequently volunteered for courses, Thompson said. Jones “was a friendly Newfoundlander who loved to play his guitar and drive his pickup truck. His buddies say Jonesie was one of the kindest persons you’ll ever meet.”

The three were killed, and one other soldier seriously injured, while on a quick-reaction team investigating a report that an IED was being placed on the highway west of Kandahar city. It was that bomb that cost them their lives. The injured soldier was in fair condition Sunday. “We have killed them because they are our enemies,” said Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi. “We suggested the Canadian troops leave Afghanistan but they did not heed, so let them fight with us and see the casualties. We will carry out more attacks and IEDs against them.” The ramp ceremony to say farewell to the soldiers was delayed by a series of Taliban rocket attacks on the base. If the rockets were meant to prevent the ceremony from taking place, they failed, Thompson said. “We still sent our brothers home with the dignity they deserved,” Thompson said. In just over a week, insurgent IEDs have killed six Canadians, and seriously wounded two more, one of them a soldier on foot patrol who lost his lower legs. A Canadian armoured vehicle was struck by another IED on Thursday evening, but no one was injured. In the past two months, a half-dozen of the bombs have been discovered on the 17-kilometre stretch of road between Kandahar City and Kandahar Airfield, a route on which IED emplacements were previously uncommon.