German Army Sergeant Christian Kopp

German Army Sergeant Christian Kopp, age 24, was killed on 17th December 2006 in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Sgt. Kopp, serving with Panzer Training Battalion, died in a traffic accident.

Dutch Army Sergeant Dijkstra

Sergeant Dijkstra, serving with the Royal Netherlands Army in Afghanistan, committed suicide on 11th October 2006. We have no further details about this incident.

Journalist, Karen Fischer

Karen Fischer

Karen Fischer, a German freelance journalist, was shot dead with her partner, Christian Struwe, while they slept in a tent beside a road in Baghlan province.

Ms. Fischer, aged 30, and a former student in the School of Journalism, was working as a freelance journalist for Deutsche Welle, the German state-run broadcasting company. She and Struwe were killed by gunmen weilding AK-47s, according to news reports over the weekend.

Authorities are being urged to waste no time in establishing who killed the journalists.

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Italian Army Corporal Vincenzo Cardella

Vincenzo Cardella

Italian Army Corporal Vincenzo Cardella, aged 24, died on 30th September 2006 from wounds he received in a roadside bomb blast four days previously.

The incident happened 10km south of Kabul when an Italian military convoy was on the road. A bomb was remotely detonated and killed one Italian soldier outright, injuring five other soldiers and killing an Afghan child who was in a car behind the convoy.

Cpl. Cardella was evacuated to a French Military hospital and later airlifted to Italy. Surgeons were unable to save his life. 

He served with Italy's 2nd Alpine Regiment.

Italian Army Corporal Giorgio Langella

Cpl. Langella

Italian Army Corporal Giorgio Langella, aged 31, was killed on 26th September 2006 from wounds received by a roadside bomb blast.

The incident happened 10km south of Kabul when an Italian military convoy was on the road. A bomb was remotely detonated killing Cpl. Langella and injuring five other soldiers. An Afghan child who was in a car behind the convoy also died in the attack.

Cpl. Langella served with Italy's 2nd Alpine Regiment.

Italian soldier, Giuseppe Orlando

Giuseppe Orlando

Italian Corporal Major Giuseppe Orlando, aged 28, died 21st September 2006 in Kabul, Afghanistan, as a result of an accident that wounded two fellow soldiers.

Cpl. Orlando was in an armoured vehicle on a routine patrol when the avehicle in which the three were traveling rolled over while making a sharp turn because of a landslip in the land. He was a machine gunner riding in the top turret and was exposed. He died from his injuries.

The soldiers involved were members of the 22nd Company, 2nd Alpine Regiment, a component of the Battle Group 3.

RAF Nimrod aircraft crashes killing 14

Fourteen British military personnel have died after a Royal Air Force Nimrod MR2 aircraft crashed in Afghanistan on Saturday 2nd September 2006.

The Nimrod exploded in mid-air near Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, shortly after air-to-air refuelling. The crew and passengers were on a mission to support Nato and Afghan forces in an operation against the Taliban in Helmand. 

The 14 crew members

The crew and passengers onboard were:

1. Allan Squires, Fl. Lieutentant, 120 Sqn Royal Air Force
2. Benjamin Knight, Sergeant, 120 Sqn Royal Air Force
3. Gareth Nicholas, Fl. Lieutenant, 120 Sqn Royal Air Force
4. Gary Andrews, Sergeant, 120 Sqn Royal Air Force
5. Adrian Davies, Sergeant, 120 Sqn Royal Air Force
6. Gary Quilliam, Sergeant, 120 Sqn Royal Air Force
7. Gerard Bell, Sergeant, 120 Sqn Royal Air Force
8. John Langton, Sergeant, 120 Sqn Royal Air Force
9. Joseph Windall, Marine, Royal Marines
10. Leigh Mitchelmore, Fl. Lieutenant, 120 Sqn Royal Air Force
11. Oliver Dicketts, L-Corporal, Parachute Regiment
12. Stephen Beattie, Sergeant, 120 Sqn Royal Air Force
13. Steve Johnson, Fl. Lieutenant, 120 Sqn Royal Air Force
14. Steve Swarbrick, Fl. Lieutenant, 120 Sqn Royal Air Force

Dutch F-16 pilot, Captain Michael Donkervoort

Dutch Air Force F-16 pilot, Captain Michael Donkervoort, was killed on 31 August 2006 in a mysterious crash over mountainous terrain in Afghanistan.

He had taken off from Kabul International Airport as the leader of a formation of two. After join-up and climbout, the two jets headed southwest toward their intended mission area, cruising at Flight Level 320 (32,000 ft above sea level) and a relatively slow speed of 280 kts.

About four minutes after crossing the path of a commercial airliner (that was flying 1,000 ft higher than the two fighters) the pilot of the lead F-16, Captain Michael Donkervoort, suddenly made a mayday call.

His wingman, flying approximately 2 nmi away in line-abreast formation, saw Donkervoort's F-16 pitch down while starting a continuous right roll. Without any further communication from its pilot, the jet impacted the 10,000-ft high mountains 30 seconds later, in a near vertical attitude (80 degrees nose down and 120 degrees right bank) at very high speed (approximately Mach 1.2). Capt. Donkervoort was killed instantly.

Dutch helicopter crash kills two

Two Dutch military personnel were killed in a helicopter crash on 26th July 2006. Dutch Air Force Lieutenant-Colonel Jan van Twist, aged 47, an air force legal officer and Sergeant Bart van Boxtel, aged 29, serving with the 11th Airmobile Brigade (PARA) both died instantly in the crash.

Both men were based in Kabul.

TV cameraman, Abdul Qodus

Abdul Qodus, a cameraman for the private Aryana TV station, was killed in a double suicide bombing in the city of Kandahar. He had arrived at the scene of a suicide car bomb when a second attacker with explosives strapped to his body blew himself up, according to the Kabul-based Committee to Protect Afghan Journalists (CPAJ) and news reports. Qodus died of head injuries at a local hospital.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the two explosions, which also killed two Canadian soldiers and several civilians, according to international news reports.

Spanish soldier, Jorge Seminario, dies in bomb blast

Jorge Seminario

Spanish soldier Jorge Arnaldo Hernandez Seminario died after an explosion blasted the patrol vehicle he was in. Five other soldiers were seriously injured.

The incident took place near Farah in the west of the country on 8th July 2006.

The dead man had Peruvian nationality, the ministry said.

British patrol attacked, two soldiers dead

Two British military personnel killed in Afghanistan on 27 June 2006 have been named as Captain David Patton and Sergeant Paul Bartlett.

During an operation in the Sangin valley, northern Helmand province, in the early morning of 27 June 2006, a UK patrol came under attack. One further soldier was seriously wounded. His injuries are not thought to be life threatening. Next of kin have been informed.

Captain David Patton of the Parachute Regiment was born on 12 September 1967. Sergeant Paul Bartlett Royal Marines was born on 3 March 1971. 

 

Capt. David Patton

Sgt Paul Bartlett, RM

Italian Army Warrant Officer, Luca Polsinelli

WO Luca Polsinelli

Italian Army Warrant Officer, Luca Polsinelli, aged 28 was killed by a remotely detonated roadside bomb on 5th May 2006.

 

WO Polsinelli was part of a 12-man patrol riding in two armoured vehicles when the incident happened. Another Italian soldier was killed and four wounded by the blast.

WO Polsinelli served with the Italian 9th Alpine Regiment. He was from the city of Orbettelo and was unmarried.

Italian Army officer, Lieutenant Manuel Fiorito

Lt. Manuel Fiorito

Italian Army officer, Lieutenant Manuel Fiorito, aged 27 was killed by a remotely detonated roadside bomb on 5th May 2006.

Lt. Fiorito was part of a 12-man patrol riding in two armoured vehicles when the incident happened. Another Italian soldier was killed and four wounded by the blast.

Lt. Fiorito served with the Italian 2nd Alpine Regiment. He was from the city of Verona and was unmarried.

Italian officer, Lt. Col. Carlo Liguori

Lt. Col. Liguori

A Lieutenant Colonel of the Italian Army, Carlo Liguori, aged 41, died on 7th February 2006 in Herat, Afghanistan, from a suspected heart attack while standing in line for breakfast.

First aid was applied at the scene by surrounding soldiers but to no avail. Liguori was immediately evacuated to a Spanish Military Field hospital, where a doctor tried to revive him.

Lieutenant Colonel Liguori, originally from Gragnano, had resided in Sabaudia for years. He was married and the father of a boy of 12 years. In the military he was an advanced official in the antiaircraft artillery. His current position in service was with the General Staff of the Army.