Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan

An Aus­tralian Army com­bat engi­neer serv­ing with Men­tor­ing Task Force – Two (MTF‑2), Sap­per Jamie Lar­combe, was killed in action dur­ing an engage­ment with insur­gents in the Mirabad Val­ley region of Uruz­gan Province overnight (Aus­tralia time).
An Afghan local nation­al employed as an inter­preter was also killed in the exchange of fire.

The Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Mar­shal Angus Hous­ton, said Sap­per Lar­combe was 21 years old and from the Dar­win-based 1st Com­bat Engi­neer Regiment. 

“Sap­per Lar­combe had just passed the third anniver­sary of his enlist­ment into the Army, which was on the 18th of Feb­ru­ary. In that time, Jamie had served on Oper­a­tion Padang Assist and this was his first tour to Afghanistan,” Air Chief Mar­shal Hous­ton said. 

Sap­per Lar­combe is sur­vived by his par­ents, three younger sis­ters and his part­ner. They are a very close fam­i­ly, and can be very proud of Jamie.” 

Air Chief Mar­shal Hous­ton said the sol­diers were patrolling in area to the South East of Patrol Base Wali when they were engaged by an insur­gent group. 

“Unfor­tu­nate­ly both our sol­dier and his inter­preter com­rade were struck by gun­shots in that engage­ment and despite imme­di­ate first aid were unable to be saved,” Air Chief Mar­shal Hous­ton said. 

“A coali­tion heli­copter was launched to evac­u­ate the two men but on arrival at the Multi­na­tion­al Base – Tarin Kot med­ical facil­i­ty they were declared deceased. 

“Our thoughts are with Sap­per Larcombe’s fam­i­ly and friends. 

“This is also anoth­er trag­ic day for the ADF, for the Army, our per­son­nel in Afghanistan and espe­cial­ly, our sap­per community.” 

Defence is now focused on sup­port­ing Sap­per Larcombe’s family. 

Defence will not release fur­ther per­son­al details at this time. 

Twen­ty-three sol­diers have been killed in Afghanistan since the ADF com­menced Oper­a­tion SLIPPER

Four Aus­tralian sol­diers have been wound­ed in Afghanistan this year, with 168 ADF per­son­nel wound­ed in action since 2002. 

Media con­tact: Defence Media Oper­a­tions (02) 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

Face­book and/or on Twit­ter

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →