DEFENCE MEDIA RELEASE
Issued by Ministerial Support and Public Affairs, Department of Defence, Canberra, ACT
Phone: 02 6127 1999, Fax: 02 6265 1545
MSPA 070/10
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
1st Mentoring Task Force Soldiers Wounded in Chora IED Strike
Five soldiers from the 1st
Mentoring Task Force (MTF-1) were Wounded in Action
overnight when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) damaged the Bushmaster
vehicle in which they were travelling.
Three of the soldiers suffered serious wounds in the incident while two others were
slightly wounded as a result of the explosion.
Commander Joint Task Force 633 Major General John Cantwell said the wounded
soldiers were provided immediate care by their mates before being evacuated to the
Tarin Kowt ISAF medical facility.
“The patrol moved quickly to secure the scene and provide quality first aid treatment
to their wounded mates,” Major General Cantwell said.
“They were quickly evacuated from the scene and were transported to medical
facilities in less than an hour after striking the IED.”
The wounded soldiers received initial treatment at Tarin Kowt but due to the nature of
their injuries, the three seriously wounded members of the patrol have been
transferred to a larger ISAF medical facility in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan that
offers a higher level of specialist medical care.
“All five soldiers are conscious and have called their families to let them know what
has happened,” Major General Cantwell said.
“They are now receiving the best medical care available.
“I’d expect that some of them will return to Australia for recuperation and
rehabilitation in the coming days.”
MTF-1 was conducting a vehicle-mounted patrol in the Chora Valley area of Oruzgan
Province on a routine patrol when the incident occurred.
The IED blast damaged the Bushmaster vehicle in which the soldiers were operating.
In a separate incident on the 14th
of March, an Australian vehicle-mounted patrol
struck an IED, causing significant damage to a Bushmaster vehicle. The vehicle was
not recoverable, and was deliberately destroyed by coalition precision air munitions to
deny access to it by the insurgents.
DEFENCE MEDIA RELEASE
Issued by Ministerial Support and Public Affairs, Department of Defence, Canberra, ACT
Phone: 02 6127 1999, Fax: 02 6265 1545
In this second incident an interpreter assisting the patrol was also wounded, requiring
evacuation to the coalition medical facility. Additionally two Afghan National
Security Force soldiers also suffered superficial wounds.
There were no Australian soldiers wounded in this incident.
These two incidents follow several successful cache finds by MTF-1 in the past week
as well as the recent capture of insurgent leader, Mullah Janan Andewahl, that will
reduce the insurgents’ capacity for violence in Oruzgan.
Australian and Afghan forces will continue to confront the threat from IEDs and are
determined to enhance security in the Province so that the local population are less
exposed to these devices that kill and maim people indiscriminately.
13 ADF personnel have been wounded in Afghanistan this year. 113 personnel have
been wounded in Afghanistan since Operation SLIPPER commenced.
Media Note:
Definition of “wounded”
By definition, a Defence member that is serving in warlike circumstances and is
involved in contact with the adversary, either through direct engagement, or indirectly
(eg. road-side bombing), and is hurt, is said to have been “Wounded in Action”. A
Defence member hurt in an incident that has not been the result of adversarial action
in warlike circumstances is said to have been “injured”.
We request that media reporting of this incident refers to those involved as Wounded.
In Action or wounded.
Media contact: Defence Media Liaison: (02) 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664
NEWS 
