Afghanistan — Australian soldiers wounded in improvised explosive device blast

Four Aus­tralian sol­diers serv­ing in the 1st Men­tor­ing Task Force were wound­ed on Sat­ur­day morn­ing (Afghanistan time — 03 July 2010) when the Bush­mas­ter vehi­cle they were trav­el­ling in struck an insur­gent Impro­vised Explo­sive Device.

The sol­diers were part of a part­nered 1st Men­tor­ing Task Force and Afghan Nation­al Army vehi­cle-mount­ed patrol in the Cho­ra Val­ley region of Uruz­gan province when the device detonated. 

Deputy Com­man­der Joint Task Force 633 Com­modore Roger Boyce said two sol­diers suf­fered minor wounds and anoth­er two received super­fi­cial wounds as a result of the blast effect from the Impro­vised Explo­sive Device. 

The sol­diers were treat­ed at the scene and evac­u­at­ed by Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force (ISAF) heli­copter to the ISAF Role 2 Hos­pi­tal at Mul­ti-Nation­al Base — Tarin Kowt. 

“The two sol­diers with super­fi­cial wounds have been treat­ed and released from hos­pi­tal for a few days of well-deserved rest,” Com­modore Boyce said. 

“One of the sol­diers with minor wounds remains under obser­va­tion in Tarin Kowt while the oth­er sol­dier has been moved to the ISAF Kan­da­har Role III Med­ical Facil­i­ty for fur­ther med­ical assessment.” 

“The sol­diers are in good spir­its and want to get back out with their mates, but we’ll mon­i­tor them close­ly over the next few days before let­ting them get back on with the job.” 

The wound­ed sol­diers have con­tact­ed their family. 

These casu­al­ties bring the num­ber of Aus­tralians wound­ed this year to 42. To date 142 per­son­nel have been wound­ed since Oper­a­tion SLIPPER began. 

For more infor­ma­tion on the ADF’s oper­a­tion in Afghanistan go to http://www.defence.gov.au/op/afghanistan/index.htm

Media con­tact: Defence Media Liai­son: (02) 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia