Canadian soldier falls from tower, dies afterwards

April 19, 2007

Wednesday, a Canadian soldier died in a non-combat related incident after falling from a communications tower in Afghanistan.

"It was not operationally related at this time. It was simply, unfortunately an accident," Col. Mike Cessford said. "I would stress that we take every precaution to minimize the dangers to our soldiers. However, risk is inherent in the nature of the work that we do."

The soldier's name will not be released until the other relatives have been notified due to the family's request.

This is the first non-combat related incident in Kandahar. Most Canadian forces are based at Kandahar Airfield as part of the International Security Assistance Force.

Most Canadian soldiers' deaths were in bomb attacks and/or during combat. Fifty-four Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan since the mission began in 2002.