TORONTO — Four Canadian soldiers were killed and eight were injured Friday in two separate bombings in Afghanistan, Canada's top general in the country said.
It was one of the deadliest days for Canada since its Afghan mission started in 2002.
"Success in war is costly," Brig. Gen. Jonathan Vance, the commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, said at a news conference in Kandahar. "We are determined to succeed so that Afghan lives improve, but the insurgents are equally determined to challenge and prevent Afghanistan from flourishing as the nation it so wants to be."
He said two soldiers died and five were wounded in an explosion during a morning foot patrol in the Zhari district, west of Kandahar. He said an Afghan interpreter also died.
Vance said two other soldiers died and three were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in the Shah Wali Kot district, northwest of Kandahar.
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The deaths bring to 116 the number of Canadian soldiers who have died as part of the Afghan mission since it began in 2002. Canada has about 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan, mostly in the volatile south.
All of the soldiers were taking part in a major operation aimed at attacking Taliban command centers and supply lines.
Afghanistan's top Muslim clerics urged President Hamid Karzai on Friday to push ahead with a proposal for talks with the Taliban that would be mediated by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah.
Calls for negotiations between Afghanistan's government and the Taliban have been mounting as the militant group has stepped up attacks in recent years despite efforts to defeat them by Afghan and international forces.
In the latest violence, international forces killed 34 militants in two days of clashes in the country's volatile south and east, the U.S. military said Friday.
President Obama has urged the Afghan government to encourage moderate elements of the Taliban to reconcile with the government, and Karzai has repeatedly said he is open to talks with top Taliban leaders, but has made few apparent moves to start such a process. Karzai has previously asked King Abdullah to facilitate contacts with the Taliban.
US toll in
afghanistan
•Deaths: 595
•Wounded: 2,724
No recent casualties identified
SOURCE: Defense Department
