KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Canadian colonel who died in a suicide car bombing in Kabul was preparing to take over a senior position responsible for development work in Kandahar as part of NATO's counterinsurgency strategy.
The Canadian Forces says Col. Geoff Parker was on a reconnaissance mission and was set to become the deputy director of stability for Regional Command South headquarters at Kandahar Airfield.
Parker is the highest-ranking Canadian Forces member to die as part of Canada's eight-year-old Afghan mission.
In the new job, a civilian position that typically lasts one year, Parker would have been tasked with co-ordinating humanitarian and development activity in support of the ISAF mission.
The 42-year-old native of Oakville, Ont., who was scheduled to take over the job in October, was killed Tuesday when a suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy in Kabul, killing 18 people.
The attack, the deadliest for NATO in Kabul in eight months, also killed five U.S. soldiers and 12 Afghan civilians.
