PASHMUL, Afghanistan -- In a tragic milestone event, three Canadian soldiers died Friday morning while tasked with clearing a highway of explosives. Their deaths bring the number of Canadian troops killed in the Afghan war to 100.

Warrant Officer Robert John Wilson, Cpl. Mark Robert McLaren and Pte. Demetrios Diplaros were killed instantly by a massive blast that catapulted their heavily armoured vehicle into the air and left a nine-metre-deep crater in one of Afghanistan’s most dangerous highways.

The blast occurred just an hour after another improvised-explosive device blew the lower legs off a soldier patrolling on foot 10 kilometres away. He survived, as did another infantryman wounded by the bomb.

The three dead Canadians were mentors for the Afghan National Army (ANA), and were on patrol Friday with Afghan soldiers, to locate hidden improvised explosive devices along the stretch of Highway 1 that runs west of Kandahar city through the Taliban heartland.

Around 9 a.m., the improvised bomb exploded by the soldiers’ vehicle near Senjaray in Arghandab district.

“We’ll deal with our emotions, and the loss of our friends,” said Maj. Rob McBride, a commander at a Canadian forward base near the sites of both explosions. “It’s a difficult thing to get up and carry on, but everybody in our military is professional enough. We’ve got a very important job to do.”

McLaren had served in Afghanistan before, and was wounded in 2006.

“He was anxious to return and assist the Afghan National Army to bring peace and stability to this country,” Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson, Canadian commander of NATO forces in Kandahar province, said Friday. “A few weeks ago, Mark risked his life by crawling towards an Afghan soldier who had been shot in order to provide him first aid under fire.”

Diplaros, known to friends and comrades as “Dip” because of their inability to pronounce his last name, was on his first tour in Afghanistan.

“He was an exceptional driver and gunner,” Thompson said.

Thompson noted that with the Canadian military body count now standing at 100, debate about the mission is sure to erupt, but inaction in the face of the insurgency is not an option, Thompson said.

“Already there is talk of numbers and milestones,” Thompson said. “There is no distinction for us between the first and the last. Unfortunately, the currency of warfare is people’s lives.”

What the public may see as a milestone looks different to soldiers fighting the Afghan war, McBride said.

“There’s no difference for me from number 100 or number 10 or number 75,” McBride said. “They’ve all sacrificed their lives for Canada and Afghanistan.”

All three soldiers were from 1st Battalion, the Royal Canadian Regiment, based at Petawawa, Ont., west of Ottawa, where Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed his condolences to military families who have deeply felt the effects of the overseas military campaign.

Friday’s fatalities brought the death toll at this base to 26.

Harper was at CFB Petawawa for a previously scheduled event to launch a “Trees for the Troops” Christmas campaign.

Speaking to about 150 soldiers there with his daughter Rachel by his side, Harper acknowledged the loss.

“As your prime minister, I want to express my condolences to the family and friends of these three brave soldiers,” Harper said. “To those who know them, give them our love, and tell them we will show it by loving and protecting our country.”

Harper acknowledged the “terrible loss” that Petawawa community suffered with this latest tragedy. He said he was impressed by the incredible support that military families receive from communities such as Petawawa.

“I never feel able to put the depths of my feelings at times like this into adequate words,” he said.

“These are very special people who have put their lives on the line in the service of their fellow human beings and in their devotion to our country. It is because of them now and throughout our history that we are able to celebrate our Christmas in such peace and prosperity,” Harper said. “It is because of them that we have this wonderful country. It is their gift to us.”

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion expressed his condolences in a written statement.

“This latest incident is a terrible reminder of the real dangers that the members of our Canadian Forces currently serving in Afghanistan face while working to promote safety and security to this troubled region,” Dion said. “We will always remember these brave individuals for their selfless courage and sacrifice.”

McLaren’s father, Mark, said in Peterborough, Ont., that his son was “living his dream” on his second tour of Afghanistan.

“He was well aware of the risks. We were too, but nobody is ever prepared to hear that their loved one has passed away.

“We’re having a tough time dealing with this. He was the best son we could have ever asked for.”

McLaren said his son had plans to marry his girlfriend Michelle.

“She was the one who called me this morning to let me know. Oh my God, the poor girl is in tears and can’t stop crying. It’s such a loss for her. It’s an incredible loss for all of us.”

He said he wants people to remember Mark as someone who was “no higher or lower” than anyone else in the military.

“Remember him as most Canadian soldiers. They have done an incredible job with the resources they have been given.”

Col. Dean Milner, who leads the 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group at CFB Petawawa, said neither he nor military families attach any special significance to the fact that the Canadian Forces have now lost 100 members in the current Afghanistan mission.

“This is a tragic event. Numbers? There’s no real significance in that one whatsoever. The loss of any soldier, despite what number it is, is a loss for us and we’ve got to focus on the families,” said Milner.

Milner, who just returned from Afghanistan, trained the men who died and commanded them.

“They’re doing a remarkable job. This particular crew was part of an observer/mentor/liaison team. They mentor the Afghan National Army and they were actually on a particular mission when this event happened,” Milner said. “We’re proud of the soldiers, but the focus here right now back in Canada is to provide all the support that we can.”

The latest incident ended nearly three months with no fatalities for Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. On Sept. 7, Sgt. Scott Shipway of Saskatchewan, a veteran of deployments in Kosovo, Bosnia and Cyprus, was killed when the armoured vehicle he was traveling in struck an improvised explosive device in the Panjwaii district of Kandahar province.

But Thompson said no one should interpret that to mean the recent months have been calm for soldiers. “We’ve been leaning on the enemy quite hard, the last three months,” he said.

“During my short time in Kandahar province, a female civilian member of our task force has been set on fire. A man has had his eyes gouged out in front of his family. Children have been used as suicide bombers against the security forces. A busload of young men have been executed in cold blood. And young girls have had acid thrown in their face on their way to school,” Thompson said. “Standing up to terror and injustice is not easy and it’s not without a cost, as we’ve learned today.”

The stretch of highway on which the three died is regularly targeted by Taliban planting IEDs, or ambushing vehicles from rocky outcroppings that rise from the desert. Because of the high degree of threat along the route, military convoys headed west from Kandahar city often stay off the highway as much as possible and travel through the desert — but it is heavily used by Afghan motorists and truckers.

Highway 1 is particularly perilous because the Taliban take advantage of its culverts, McBride said.

“Culverts are easily accessible to the insurgents, and they can place IEDs in them rather quickly,” McBride said, adding that the Taliban have taken to setting secondary booby-traps near the road bombs, targeting security forces searching for IEDs.

Insurgents have begun using jerry cans full of home-made explosives that are pound-for-pound more powerful than military explosives, McBride said.

Ten kilometres to the south of the fatal road bombing Friday morning, the noise of the explosion reached a group of Canadian soldiers just minutes after they had put two comrades onto a medi-vac helicopter following an 8 a.m. IED strike during a foot patrol. One of the injured men had stepped on a booby-trapped bomb made from a heavy mortar shell, and planted beside a narrow dirt road through the battle-blasted, nearly deserted village of Pashmul. The IED tore both his legs off below the knee, but a medic and soldiers trained in combat first aid quickly applied tourniquets to each leg, stabilized him. The other wounded soldier suffered shrapnel wounds to his legs and arms. Both are recovering, McBride said.

That foot patrol, which turned up IED-making manuals and two old Soviet mines that could be used for explosive devices, was intended to disrupt the Taliban’s ability to make bombs and launch ambushes, McBride said.

Soldiers had been expecting an insurgent attack, called “contact” in army jargon, during the Pashmul patrol.

“It’s a bad place,” said Cpl. Denis Toroptsev, who carried a machine-gun on the operation. “We’re getting contact every time we’re in there.”

Taliban commanders may have left the area because of the impending start of the Muslim celebration of Eid, and fighters that remained may have decided to avoid the much larger and better-armed Canadian force, and put down their weapons, McBride said. Soldiers spotted about two dozen fighting-age males carrying shovels in the grape fields, and drinking tea in compounds.

Canadian soldiers patrolling in the area west of Kandahar city get into two or three “short, sharp” firefights a week, and each month fight a couple of high-intensity battles lasting hours, McBride said.

 In addition to the military deaths, senior Foreign Affairs diplomat Glyn Berry, 59, was killed in a January 2006, suicide bomb attack outside Kandahar.