-- KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A young soldier described as a small man with a big heart was killed yesterday when a bomb exploded near an armoured vehicle carrying Canadian troops.He will be remembered.
Marc Diab, a 22-year-old Trooper with the Royal Canadian Dragoons based in Petawawa, Ont. was participating in security operations in Shah Wali Kot.
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UPDATE: He proudly chose to serve
His mother, Jihan Diab, said from her Mississauga, Ont., home that her son was proud to be in the military and was fulfilling a dream. “Marc called himself a soldier since he was probably eight, or before that.”**********
Diab, whose family emigrated to Canada from war-torn Lebanon in 2000, wanted to continue his military career after his current five-year stint was up in 2011.
RELATED: Despite the loss... the mission continues
-- KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Major Jonathan Knaul was at the controls of the first helicopter in Canadian military history to lift Canadian troops into a combat zone.*
The Chinook flown by Major Knaul helped lift a contingent of 180 soldiers to a far corner of the Zhari district, west of Kandahar city, where the troops raided a series of compounds in search of weapons and bomb-making equipment.