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	CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060723.w2afghansolde0723/BNStory/Afghanistan/
	(continued) Lt.-Col. Hope said that "for the first time I am aware of in Canadian history," soldiers were able to maintain a 230-kilometre-long supply line for five days and singled out for praise a cadre of "extremely hard-working and heroic maintainers, suppliers and transport soldiers," who made sure "we never wanted for supplies." The 18th and 19th Canadian soldiers killed on duty in Afghanistan since 2002, the two were part of the tail end of the returning convoy, which travels the dangerous and congested streets of the city and environs in carefully separated "packets" so as not to paralyze traffic. The first blast -a suicide car bomber who drove into the Bison armored vehicle driven by Cpl. Gomez -was followed an hour later by a second, this one a bomber moving on foot who blew himself up in a crowd of Afghans just a little further along on Highway 1 six kilometres west of Kandahar City. All the wounded Canadians, who were not identified, are in good condition with non-life-threatening injuries. Five were released from hospital at Kandahar Air Field last night, with two held for observation and only one flown to the U.S. military hospital at Landstuhl, Germany, for further treatment unavailable here. All the Canadians were injured in the first blast, with the bloody devastation of the second borne by locals who had simply gathered, as do curious onlookers the world over at times of tragedy, by the side of the highway as the convoy began once again moving through the area. Two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters had only recently cleared the area, ferrying the Canadian wounded to the base, when the walking bomber exploded his device. The attacks - the largest number of casualties inflicted in a single day by insurgents since Canada first sent troops to this country in early 2002 and the first double-ended one - has left Canadians at the main coalition base reeling. Most of the Canadian battle group, unbowed after sometimes ferocious combat, were quietly savouring what they believed was a safe and triumphant return. Unknown to most of them, at virtually the same time, about 20 km away from the base, the first suicider was driving his vehicle into the Bison. All the soldiers are but two or three weeks away from the end of their six-month tour here. Doctors at the base hospital report that the body armour and ballistic glasses worn by the wounded were dented and scratched and that this protective equipment and the armour of the Bison undoubtedly spared them more grievous injuries. The soldiers of Alpha Company, 1PPCLI, were the last to come back to base from a mission which changed on the fly and at its peak involved two thirds of the 800-strong combat group. Several times, the group with its formidable Light Armoured Vehicles, or LAVs, was slated to return to base, but each time, they were diverted to other tasks, often in support of beleaguered British troops. "It's like we had a force field protecting us," one jubilant soldier told reporters as A Company arrived last night without having taken a single casualty. But the bubble of relief and exhilaration burst soon after the convoy began pulling into the vehicle compound on the sprawling base, though only Lt.-Col. Hope and the senior leadership yet knew the grim news. It was about an hour later, as the happy soldiers were heading off to the showers, that word began to spread to those who had just travelled safely over the same stretch of road, notorious for IEDs, that some of their comrades were not so lucky. There is an IED strike of one sort or another - and bombs have been hidden in food carts, donkeys, on bicycles and motorcycles - almost every day or day and a half in southern Afghanistan. And while bombers wearing suicide vests are not a phenomenon native to this country, there were seven times as many, or 35 attacks, last year as in the first four years of Coalition operations since the U.S. invasion in late 2001. Most are believed to have been carried out by foreign fighters coming into Afghanistan from across the border with Pakistan. As medical staff rushed to the small but sophisticated Canadian-led combat hospital and helicopters began arriving with casualties, a tangible pall replaced the earlier mood of excitement. Both Brig.-Gen. Fraser and Lt.-Col. Hope quickly arrived at the base hospital where a vehicle lot sign reads, with a particular Canadian touch, "Parking in designated areas only -eh". cblatchford@globeandmail.ca
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