EvanL
02-04-2004, 11:04 PM
STEPHEN THORNE
Canadian Press
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
Minister of Defence David Pratt, right, speaks to reporters at a news conference at National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa on recently. (CP Archive/Simon Hayter)
CREDIT: (CP Archive/Simon Hayter)
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OTTAWA (CP) - Defence Minister David Pratt said Wednesday the government is investigating a report that the suicide bomber who killed a Canadian soldier last week in Kabul was the son of a Canadian citizen linked to Al-Qaida.
An Agence France-Presse report cited a Taliban spokesman in naming the bomber as Mohammad Abdullah, and said that he was the son of a Canadian citizen from Egypt named Abdul Rehman, who was killed by the Pakistan army in October. Cpl. Jamie Murphy of Conception Harbour, Nfld., was killed along with an Afghan bystander by a suicide bomber about a kilometre from the main Canadian base in Kabul on Jan. 27.
"I can't confirm anything at this point," Pratt said outside the Commons on Wednesday. "We're going to need a lot more evidence and a lot more details from the folks in Afghanistan. Our officials are looking into it."
Pratt said Canadian officials take any information from Taliban members "with a grain of salt."
"We want to check things out," he said. "Obviously that investigation hasn't been completed at this point."
Taliban spokesman Mohammad Saiful Adel said the father of the suicide bomber was an al-Qaida member who fought against the Soviets and spent a lot of his life in Pakistan and in Afghanistan.
"He was killed during a recent operation by the Pakistan army against the village of Angoor Adda, in the Pakistani tribal zone," the spokesman said in the Agence France-Presse report from Kabul.
Canadian officials have confirmed that human remains were collected from the blast site in Kabul, where the Canadian was killed and three of his fellow fighters wounded along with numerous Afghan civilians.
Allied forces run DNA tests on dead enemy as a matter of routine. The FBI and U.S. military intelligence have extensive data banks of DNA on suspected terrorists.
Afghan authorities and the International Security Assistance Force, of which Canada is part, have not revealed details of the suicide bomber except to say he had rigged his bomb with mortars and artillery as well as explosives.
© Copyright 2004 The Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
Minister of Defence David Pratt, right, speaks to reporters at a news conference at National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa on recently. (CP Archive/Simon Hayter)
CREDIT: (CP Archive/Simon Hayter)
ADVERTISEMENT
OTTAWA (CP) - Defence Minister David Pratt said Wednesday the government is investigating a report that the suicide bomber who killed a Canadian soldier last week in Kabul was the son of a Canadian citizen linked to Al-Qaida.
An Agence France-Presse report cited a Taliban spokesman in naming the bomber as Mohammad Abdullah, and said that he was the son of a Canadian citizen from Egypt named Abdul Rehman, who was killed by the Pakistan army in October. Cpl. Jamie Murphy of Conception Harbour, Nfld., was killed along with an Afghan bystander by a suicide bomber about a kilometre from the main Canadian base in Kabul on Jan. 27.
"I can't confirm anything at this point," Pratt said outside the Commons on Wednesday. "We're going to need a lot more evidence and a lot more details from the folks in Afghanistan. Our officials are looking into it."
Pratt said Canadian officials take any information from Taliban members "with a grain of salt."
"We want to check things out," he said. "Obviously that investigation hasn't been completed at this point."
Taliban spokesman Mohammad Saiful Adel said the father of the suicide bomber was an al-Qaida member who fought against the Soviets and spent a lot of his life in Pakistan and in Afghanistan.
"He was killed during a recent operation by the Pakistan army against the village of Angoor Adda, in the Pakistani tribal zone," the spokesman said in the Agence France-Presse report from Kabul.
Canadian officials have confirmed that human remains were collected from the blast site in Kabul, where the Canadian was killed and three of his fellow fighters wounded along with numerous Afghan civilians.
Allied forces run DNA tests on dead enemy as a matter of routine. The FBI and U.S. military intelligence have extensive data banks of DNA on suspected terrorists.
Afghan authorities and the International Security Assistance Force, of which Canada is part, have not revealed details of the suicide bomber except to say he had rigged his bomb with mortars and artillery as well as explosives.
© Copyright 2004 The Canadian Press