Canadian soldier wounded in IED with two reporters shaken

Soldier seriously hurt, reporters shaken after armoured vehicle struck by IED
Linda Nguyen , Canwest News Service
Published: Sunday, August 24, 2008
One Canadian soldier was seriously injured and two embedded reporters were shaken up when the military vehicle they were riding in early Sunday hit a roadside bomb near the town of Salawat, southwest of Kandahar City.

Scott Deveau, who is covering the Afghanistan mission for Canwest News Service and the National Post, was sitting in the back of an armoured vehicle with a Canadian Press reporter and a group of soldiers when their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device (IED) around 11:30 a.m. local time.

One of the two soldiers in the front of the armoured personnel vehicle, usually used to transport troops, was seriously injured during the blast.

"The strike hit about five feet from me," Deveau said in a telephone interview from the Kandahar Airfield military base. "It blew the (vehicle) on its side."

One soldier was airlifted to hospital for surgery. The soldier remains in hospital in serious condition. The extent of his injuries were not known.

Deveau, 30, the remaining six soldiers and the other reporter were also airlifted out of the area. None of them was seriously injured. Deveau says he's "pretty banged up" but his only injury is a minor scrape to the head.

Deveau and the other journalist, Canadian Press reporter Tobi Cohen, who also ironically was supposed to be celebrating her 30th birthday Sunday, had hitched a ride with the light armoured vehicle on its way back to Kandahar Airfield. The two had spent three days in the field in Zhari district with Canadian troops, following them as they confiscated weapons believed to be used by the Taliban.

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