Two Canadian soldiers were killed and three were injured in two separate roadside bombings in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the military has confirmed.
Master Cpl. Allan Stewart, 30, and Trooper Patrick James Pentland, 23, of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, were based in Petawawa, Ont.
The attacks happened within hours of each other, in locations less than one kilometre apart, said Col. Mike Cessford, the deputy commander of the Canadian contingent in Afghanistan.
One of the three wounded Canadian soldiers, centre, is helped into the military hospital in Kandahar after the Wednesday bombings.
(Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)
Their injured colleagues were in stable condition.
"As you can appreciate, our thoughts are with the families of the soldiers that we have lost," Cessford told reporters in Kandahar after the attacks. "All soldiers are thinking of these families."
He said the bombings occurred about 38 kilometres west of Kandahar on Wednesday night. The second bomb, which exploded next to a Canadian military vehicle, took the greatest toll — killing the two soldiers and injuring two.
The soldiers hit in the second bombing were attempting to help their colleagues who were struck by the first bomb, the Canadian Defence Department said in a news release. The first bombing, which also occurred next to a Canadian military vehicle, injured one soldier.
Col. Mike Cessford answers reporters' questions at the Canadian military base in Kandahar.
(Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)
Cessford said all three injured soldiers were taken by helicopter to a military hospital in Kandahar.
Cessford would not elaborate on the attacks or say what type of vehicles the soldiers had been in.
There was a third bomb attack on Canadian soldiers on Wednesday, at about noon, but no one was injured, said Chris Brown of CBC News, reporting from Kandahar.
Canada has now lost 53 soldiers and one diplomat in Afghanistan since the mission began in 2002.
Latest deaths follow Easter casualties
The latest casualties came just three days after six soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in the troubled country. The bodies of the six arrived at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in southeastern Ontario on Wednesday night.
The six were killed Sunday when their armoured vehicle struck a roadside bomb west of the city of Kandahar, resulting in the worst single-day loss of life for the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, Brown reported that many soldiers in Afghanistan went to bed Wednesday night unaware their colleagues had been injured or killed.
Brown predicted the soldiers will be devastated when they wake up Thursday morning and hear the news.
"It's really going to be a body blow," Brown said. "Canada has had bad weeks [in Afghanistan], but this is really looking like the worst."
Military officials have confirmed that two Canadian soldiers were killed in two separate road-side bombings targeting the same convoy within hours of each other in southern Afghanistan Wednesday night. The bombings occurred about 38 kilometres west of Kandahar said Colonel Mike Cessford, deputy commander of Task Force Afghanistan in a late-night briefing.

Another three were injured but according to reports they are in stable condition. A Canadian Forces tanker truck was damaged. All the soldiers are from CFB Petawawa in Petawawa, Ontario. A bomb also exploded at around noon but no one sustained injuries.

The two road-side bombings took place in the same general area, about a kilometre apart. In the first incident a soldier was injured, while the second road-side bomb, approximately two hours later, killed the two soldiers. The names of the dead soldiers are being withheld until the families are notified. Colonel Cessford provided the details to reporters in Kandahar Thursday morning. "There was a significant separation between the two incidents," said Cessford. "These were two separate vehicles from two separate areas that were in roughly the same area."

Six Canadian soldiers that were killed in southern Afghanistan last Sunday were returned to CFB Trenton in Trenton, Ontario today.

53 Canadian soldiers have been killed in the war-torn country since 2002.