EvanL
01-28-2004, 06:36 PM
Sadness grips a pretty little town
By SHAWNA RICHER AND ERIN ANDERSSEN
With a report from Kevin Cox and Canadian Press
UPDATED AT 6:31 PM EST Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2004
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CONCEPTION HARBOUR, NFLD. and OTTAWA -- Norman and Alice Murphy were deep in sleep when the tragedy of a war that won't end in Afghanistan arrived on their doorstep.
A military chaplain and a parish priest, Michael Barker, whom they know well, knocked shortly before daybreak to say their son, Corporal Jamie Brendan Murphy, 26, had been killed in Kabul.
The bomb injured Cpl. Richard Newman, 23, of Hartland, N.B., Cpl. Jeremy MacDonald, 30, of Burnt Islands, Nfld., and Lieutenant Jason Feyko of Peterborough, Ont. They were listed in stable condition.
"They told me that Jamie was dead, he was killed," a tearful Alice Murphy told the CBC yesterday.
He was to return to Petawawa, Ont., early next month, and planned to move into a new house there with his girlfriend.
There is a sadness in this pretty place of 900, once a bustling fishing community, that comes with the harshness of winter. Most of the afternoon, a storm approached, but for a moment the sun found a sliver of blue sky and shone on the village.
"This is a difficult day," said Father Barker, who will conduct the funeral mass later this week and spent the day with the family.
Cpl. Murphy was raised in this house and his dad was too. His siblings -- John, 43, Rosemary, 40, and Norma, 30, made a close family.
Mr. Murphy was 19 when he joined the military. By all accounts, he loved it; its physical demands, its purpose. He served on a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. But his parents worried.
On the southern shore of Newfoundland, snowplow operator Gerald MacDonald was just finishing a shift of clearing roads when his wife telephoned him with the news that their son Cpl. Jeremy MacDonald had been injured.
"She told me he was all right and what happened really didn't hit me until later. It's devastating."When he finally got home, he learned that his wife had spoken to their son and he had suffered some cuts from the bomb blast but was walking around the Kabul hospital.
In Hartland, N.B., Cathy Newman said the phone rang at 3 a.m. "My heart dropped," she said. "I haven't been to sleep since."
Cpl. Newman underwent surgery to remove shrapnel from his shoulder, but his wounds were not life-threatening.
Born in Fredericton, Cpl. Newman had signed up when he was 19 years old, following his father who had been a corporal in the Royal Canadian Regiment, and brushing off his parents' warning that "it would not be all fun and games." He had been posted to Petawawa immediately, living on the base with his fiancée
Outside Peterborough, Ont., Lieutenant Jason Feyko's father, Mike, had also received an early morning telephone call. He was told his son's injuries were not critical.
"He loved his job," said his father. "And he was very proud of the job his men were doing over there." Ms. Newman said she was relieved when military officials confirmed that her son would survive.
"All they told us [was] it wasn't life-threatening," she said from her home. Later, Cpl. Newman's father, Richard, said surgery on his son's injured shoulder was successful.
Killed, with just a week to serve
BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH
OTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWA—As he left the safety of the Canadian camp for the dangerous streets of Kabul, Cpl. Jamie Murphy could take heart.
Next week, the 26-year-old soldier would be back in Canada after a six-month tour in Afghanistan, to the relief of his family in Newfoundland and his common-law wife Candice McCauley in Petawawa.
Indeed, the six soldiers who headed out on morning patrol, members of the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment, were all counting down their final days in Kabul.
Their two-jeep patrol was just a kilometre from Camp Julien — home to almost 2,000 Canadian troops — when a man jumped on one of the lightly armoured jeeps and detonated a bomb strapped to his chest.
Murphy, of Conception Harbour, Nfld., was killed instantly and three fellow soldiers were wounded in the attack, which occurred around 8:25 a.m. yesterday in Kabul (10:55 p.m. Monday in Toronto). The Taliban claimed responsibility.
Lieut. Jason Feyko, 30, of Peterborough, was transported to the University of Bonn medical centre in Germany for treatment of serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Cpl. Richard Michael Newman, 24, of Hartland, N.B., and Cpl. Jeremy Gerald MacDonald, 30, of Burnt Islands, Nfld., were treated for shrapnel injuries in Kabul.
The blast also killed one Afghan civilian and injured at least eight others, including two who were in critical condition.
"We believe this attack was carried out by a suicide bomber," Gen. Ray Henault, Canada's chief of defence staff, told reporters at a news conference yesterday morning.
He refused to speculate whether the attack might have been retribution for a Canadian raid last week in which several suspected terrorists and drug lords were arrested.
Later, Mullah Hakim Latifi, a Taliban spokesperson who contacted Associated Press by satellite telephone, claimed responsibility, saying the attack was the start of a campaign of suicide bombings that "will be continued until the coalition forces leave our country."
He identified the bomber as Hafiz Abdullah, 22, from Khost province. The claim could not be independently verified.
In Ottawa, defence officials fear the attack could mark an escalation in the dangers facing Canadian troops, who are due to patrol the Afghan capital for another six months.
"It's a threat we are very conscious of and it's one we do everything to mitigate. However, against a determined suicide bomber, there's almost nothing you can do," Henault said.
But privately, other defence staff conceded the suicide bombing — and word that dozens of willing attackers had converged in Kabul — could mean further attacks.
"It does show a new capability, a new willingness among insurgents in Kabul," one official said.
Two years after the Taliban's ouster, remnants of the hard-line regime, along with its Al Qaeda allies and followers of Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, have been launching regular attacks against U.S. and international forces in the country, though suicide bombs are an unusual tactic in Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Paul Martin called the Kabul attack a "cowardly act of terrorism" and on behalf of all Canadians expressed his condolences to Murphy's family.
"This incident is a painful reminder that defending our values and doing our duty in the international campaign against terrorism can exact a very high price," he said.
"We will not forget the sacrifices these soldiers have made to make Canada and the world a safer place."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai blamed the attack, which came a day after he signed the country's first post-Taliban constitution into law, on "terrorist elements intent on disrupting the peace and security of our people."
Murphy was the seventh Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan in the past two years.
Yesterday, his weeping parents and sisters remembered him as a brave soldier who really loved his job.
He and his comrades had just left camp for a morning patrol and were travelling along a hard-packed road in the western section of the city routinely used by Canadian troops, when a man with a long beard approached from a nearby trench, officials and witnesses said.
"There was a bump in the road, and when they slowed down to pass over it, a terrorist jumped on one of the vehicles and blew himself up," said local police official Ali Jan Askaryar.
Maj. John Vass, who led the patrol, said his vehicle had just passed the bump when he heard the explosion behind him.
"We pulled the vehicle over to the side of the road and noticed the other (vehicle) was all black and the radiator appeared to have exploded," said Vass, who escaped the attack without injury.
Vass said the attack took place near a handful of shops with hundreds of Afghans going about their business.
"I didn't see him or notice him," he said, referring to the suicide bomber.
"It was a normal day on the streets of Kabul."
Vass said the attack was clearly a suicide bombing, judging by the body parts strewn over a large area. "Parts were thrown up to 100 metres away from the vehicle. It was a very disturbing sight, to say the least."
A minute afterward, three Canadian armoured vehicles travelling in the other direction happened upon the bombing. They provided security as curious Afghans crowded around.
Henault said the attack was clearly aimed at international security forces but said he didn't know if the Canadians had been specifically targeted.
The death re-ignited the controversy whether Canadian troops should be using the aging Iltis jeep to patrol hot spots. Last October, Sgt. Robert Short, 42, and Cpl. Robbie Beerenfenger, 29, were killed when their Iltis hit a land mine.
An Ottawa news conference had been previously scheduled yesterday to introduce Canadian Lt.-Gen. Rick Hillier, head of the army, who is gearing up to take charge of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force trying to keep the peace in Kabul. With news of the attack, the briefing took on a sombre tone.
Troops in Kabul have already started to come home, replaced by new a contingent of soldiers from the 5 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, based in Valcartier, Que.
Last night, another 125 troops left Quebec for Kabul, with the death a sobering reminder of the dangers they'll soon face. "Morale is excellent. ... This is another reality check. But they're still willing to go. They understand the risks involved," spokesperson Capt. Mario Couture said.
Murphy's death cast a pall over CFB Petawawa, home base for his regiment, which was festooned with yellow ribbons to welcome home returning troops.
At Petawawa, colleagues recalled the soldier they called "Murph" as a comedian they could count on to lighten things up when the going got tough.
WITH FILES FROM CANADIAN PRESS, Associated press
By SHAWNA RICHER AND ERIN ANDERSSEN
With a report from Kevin Cox and Canadian Press
UPDATED AT 6:31 PM EST Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2004
Advertisement
CONCEPTION HARBOUR, NFLD. and OTTAWA -- Norman and Alice Murphy were deep in sleep when the tragedy of a war that won't end in Afghanistan arrived on their doorstep.
A military chaplain and a parish priest, Michael Barker, whom they know well, knocked shortly before daybreak to say their son, Corporal Jamie Brendan Murphy, 26, had been killed in Kabul.
The bomb injured Cpl. Richard Newman, 23, of Hartland, N.B., Cpl. Jeremy MacDonald, 30, of Burnt Islands, Nfld., and Lieutenant Jason Feyko of Peterborough, Ont. They were listed in stable condition.
"They told me that Jamie was dead, he was killed," a tearful Alice Murphy told the CBC yesterday.
He was to return to Petawawa, Ont., early next month, and planned to move into a new house there with his girlfriend.
There is a sadness in this pretty place of 900, once a bustling fishing community, that comes with the harshness of winter. Most of the afternoon, a storm approached, but for a moment the sun found a sliver of blue sky and shone on the village.
"This is a difficult day," said Father Barker, who will conduct the funeral mass later this week and spent the day with the family.
Cpl. Murphy was raised in this house and his dad was too. His siblings -- John, 43, Rosemary, 40, and Norma, 30, made a close family.
Mr. Murphy was 19 when he joined the military. By all accounts, he loved it; its physical demands, its purpose. He served on a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. But his parents worried.
On the southern shore of Newfoundland, snowplow operator Gerald MacDonald was just finishing a shift of clearing roads when his wife telephoned him with the news that their son Cpl. Jeremy MacDonald had been injured.
"She told me he was all right and what happened really didn't hit me until later. It's devastating."When he finally got home, he learned that his wife had spoken to their son and he had suffered some cuts from the bomb blast but was walking around the Kabul hospital.
In Hartland, N.B., Cathy Newman said the phone rang at 3 a.m. "My heart dropped," she said. "I haven't been to sleep since."
Cpl. Newman underwent surgery to remove shrapnel from his shoulder, but his wounds were not life-threatening.
Born in Fredericton, Cpl. Newman had signed up when he was 19 years old, following his father who had been a corporal in the Royal Canadian Regiment, and brushing off his parents' warning that "it would not be all fun and games." He had been posted to Petawawa immediately, living on the base with his fiancée
Outside Peterborough, Ont., Lieutenant Jason Feyko's father, Mike, had also received an early morning telephone call. He was told his son's injuries were not critical.
"He loved his job," said his father. "And he was very proud of the job his men were doing over there." Ms. Newman said she was relieved when military officials confirmed that her son would survive.
"All they told us [was] it wasn't life-threatening," she said from her home. Later, Cpl. Newman's father, Richard, said surgery on his son's injured shoulder was successful.
Killed, with just a week to serve
BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH
OTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWA—As he left the safety of the Canadian camp for the dangerous streets of Kabul, Cpl. Jamie Murphy could take heart.
Next week, the 26-year-old soldier would be back in Canada after a six-month tour in Afghanistan, to the relief of his family in Newfoundland and his common-law wife Candice McCauley in Petawawa.
Indeed, the six soldiers who headed out on morning patrol, members of the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment, were all counting down their final days in Kabul.
Their two-jeep patrol was just a kilometre from Camp Julien — home to almost 2,000 Canadian troops — when a man jumped on one of the lightly armoured jeeps and detonated a bomb strapped to his chest.
Murphy, of Conception Harbour, Nfld., was killed instantly and three fellow soldiers were wounded in the attack, which occurred around 8:25 a.m. yesterday in Kabul (10:55 p.m. Monday in Toronto). The Taliban claimed responsibility.
Lieut. Jason Feyko, 30, of Peterborough, was transported to the University of Bonn medical centre in Germany for treatment of serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Cpl. Richard Michael Newman, 24, of Hartland, N.B., and Cpl. Jeremy Gerald MacDonald, 30, of Burnt Islands, Nfld., were treated for shrapnel injuries in Kabul.
The blast also killed one Afghan civilian and injured at least eight others, including two who were in critical condition.
"We believe this attack was carried out by a suicide bomber," Gen. Ray Henault, Canada's chief of defence staff, told reporters at a news conference yesterday morning.
He refused to speculate whether the attack might have been retribution for a Canadian raid last week in which several suspected terrorists and drug lords were arrested.
Later, Mullah Hakim Latifi, a Taliban spokesperson who contacted Associated Press by satellite telephone, claimed responsibility, saying the attack was the start of a campaign of suicide bombings that "will be continued until the coalition forces leave our country."
He identified the bomber as Hafiz Abdullah, 22, from Khost province. The claim could not be independently verified.
In Ottawa, defence officials fear the attack could mark an escalation in the dangers facing Canadian troops, who are due to patrol the Afghan capital for another six months.
"It's a threat we are very conscious of and it's one we do everything to mitigate. However, against a determined suicide bomber, there's almost nothing you can do," Henault said.
But privately, other defence staff conceded the suicide bombing — and word that dozens of willing attackers had converged in Kabul — could mean further attacks.
"It does show a new capability, a new willingness among insurgents in Kabul," one official said.
Two years after the Taliban's ouster, remnants of the hard-line regime, along with its Al Qaeda allies and followers of Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, have been launching regular attacks against U.S. and international forces in the country, though suicide bombs are an unusual tactic in Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Paul Martin called the Kabul attack a "cowardly act of terrorism" and on behalf of all Canadians expressed his condolences to Murphy's family.
"This incident is a painful reminder that defending our values and doing our duty in the international campaign against terrorism can exact a very high price," he said.
"We will not forget the sacrifices these soldiers have made to make Canada and the world a safer place."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai blamed the attack, which came a day after he signed the country's first post-Taliban constitution into law, on "terrorist elements intent on disrupting the peace and security of our people."
Murphy was the seventh Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan in the past two years.
Yesterday, his weeping parents and sisters remembered him as a brave soldier who really loved his job.
He and his comrades had just left camp for a morning patrol and were travelling along a hard-packed road in the western section of the city routinely used by Canadian troops, when a man with a long beard approached from a nearby trench, officials and witnesses said.
"There was a bump in the road, and when they slowed down to pass over it, a terrorist jumped on one of the vehicles and blew himself up," said local police official Ali Jan Askaryar.
Maj. John Vass, who led the patrol, said his vehicle had just passed the bump when he heard the explosion behind him.
"We pulled the vehicle over to the side of the road and noticed the other (vehicle) was all black and the radiator appeared to have exploded," said Vass, who escaped the attack without injury.
Vass said the attack took place near a handful of shops with hundreds of Afghans going about their business.
"I didn't see him or notice him," he said, referring to the suicide bomber.
"It was a normal day on the streets of Kabul."
Vass said the attack was clearly a suicide bombing, judging by the body parts strewn over a large area. "Parts were thrown up to 100 metres away from the vehicle. It was a very disturbing sight, to say the least."
A minute afterward, three Canadian armoured vehicles travelling in the other direction happened upon the bombing. They provided security as curious Afghans crowded around.
Henault said the attack was clearly aimed at international security forces but said he didn't know if the Canadians had been specifically targeted.
The death re-ignited the controversy whether Canadian troops should be using the aging Iltis jeep to patrol hot spots. Last October, Sgt. Robert Short, 42, and Cpl. Robbie Beerenfenger, 29, were killed when their Iltis hit a land mine.
An Ottawa news conference had been previously scheduled yesterday to introduce Canadian Lt.-Gen. Rick Hillier, head of the army, who is gearing up to take charge of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force trying to keep the peace in Kabul. With news of the attack, the briefing took on a sombre tone.
Troops in Kabul have already started to come home, replaced by new a contingent of soldiers from the 5 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, based in Valcartier, Que.
Last night, another 125 troops left Quebec for Kabul, with the death a sobering reminder of the dangers they'll soon face. "Morale is excellent. ... This is another reality check. But they're still willing to go. They understand the risks involved," spokesperson Capt. Mario Couture said.
Murphy's death cast a pall over CFB Petawawa, home base for his regiment, which was festooned with yellow ribbons to welcome home returning troops.
At Petawawa, colleagues recalled the soldier they called "Murph" as a comedian they could count on to lighten things up when the going got tough.
WITH FILES FROM CANADIAN PRESS, Associated press