Two Australian Soldiers Wounded in Afghanistan

Two sol­diers from Australia’s 1st Men­tor­ing Task Force (MTF1) remain in a sat­is­fac­to­ry con­di­tion after they were seri­ous­ly wound­ed on Sat­ur­day when an impro­vised explo­sive device det­o­nat­ed against their Bush­mas­ter vehi­cle in the Baluchi Val­ley region of Uruz­gan Province.

The sol­diers were part of a larg­er part­nered MTF1 and Afghan Nation­al Army patrol at the time of the incident.

Com­mand­ing Offi­cer of the 1st Men­tor­ing Task Force, Lieu­tenant Colonel Mark Jen­nings said the sol­diers were treat­ed by their mates at the inci­dent scene before being evac­u­at­ed to a near­by ISAF med­ical facil­i­ty for fur­ther treatment.

“The team had the site secured, first aid applied and casu­al­ty evac­u­a­tion under­way in mat­ter of min­utes,” Lieu­tenant Colonel Jen­nings said.

“The process worked extreme­ly well with both sol­diers receiv­ing qual­i­ty med­ical atten­tion at Tarin Kot less than 50 min­utes after the blast occurred.” 

Lieu­tenant Colonel Jen­nings said that the Task Force was still com­ing to terms with the loss of Pri­vates Tomas Dale and Grant Kir­by on Fri­day when the inci­dent occurred. 

“It’s tes­ta­ment to the pro­fes­sion­al­ism of the sol­diers I proud­ly com­mand that they have got straight back into the job at hand and per­formed admirably under try­ing circumstances.”

The Next of Kin of both the wound­ed sol­diers have been contacted.

Uruz­gan Province has one of the high­est rates of impro­vised explo­sive device activ­i­ty in Afghanistan. 

These casu­al­ties bring the num­ber of Aus­tralians wound­ed this year to 49. To date, 149 per­son­nel have been wound­ed since Oper­a­tion SLIPPER began. 

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

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