Australian Soldier Dies In Afghanistan

Signaller Sean McCarthy, 25 year old New Zealand born, Gold Coast raised man, was the sixth Australian to be killed on active duty in Afghanistan since 2002. He was fatally wounded at around 3pm Australian time (mid-morning in southern Afghanistan) on July 8, when a bomb by the road struck his vehicle when on patrol outside the main base at Tarin Kowt.

Two other men also in the vehicle were wounded, and a third received serious, but not life threatening injuries.

McCarthy, also served in East Timor and received a field of commendation during his first visit to Afghanistan last year.

There have been allegations that when McCarthy was injured, he didn’t reach hospital for two hours, instead of the anticipated 10 to 20 minutes, because a helicopter gunship was unavailable to escort a medivac chopper. These allegations were made by Royal Netherlands Army emergency doctor, Ed van der Zee.

Van der Zee also made the allegation that he had bled to death in an hour and that upon arriving back to base for treatment, he was already dead. The Australian Defence Force has denied these claims and stands by their statement that the wounded were evacuated “immediately following the incident.”

Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, has warned that more Australian soldiers are in danger of injury or death, as fighting with the Taliban becomes more intense. He made this statement:

"This is a terrible loss for his family today and we honor his service to his country, we've had losses before, my fear is we will lose them again."

Australia has around 1000 soldiers serving in Afghanistan. The other Australian’s killed in Afghanistan were Lance Corporal Jason Marks, Private Luke Worsley, Sergeant Matthew Locke, Tropper David Pearce and Sergeant Andrew Russell.