The body of a Canadian Forces colonel is on its way back home after a ramp ceremony at Kandahar Airfield.
About 1,500 soldiers and civilian personnel gathered Thursday to pay their respects to Col. Geoff Parker, who died during a suicide attack on a NATO convoy in Kabul on Tuesday.
Five U.S. soldiers and 12 Afghan citizens were also killed in the same attack.
The 42-year-old Parker was the highest-ranking Canadian soldier to die during the Afghan mission.
At the end of Thursday's ramp ceremony, Parker's flag-draped casket was placed on a Hercules military plane for the long journey back to Canada.
A repatriation ceremony is scheduled to take place Friday at CFB Trenton.
The Canadian Forces believes the attack that killed the Oakville, Ont., native was not solely aimed at harming military personnel.
Lt.-Col. Conrad Mialkowski said it is believed the suicide bomber was targeting foreigners in Kabul and not high-ranking military members.
"Our sense is that it was most likely an attack on something that was just identified as something that was foreign and out of place," he said Thursday.
"It's fairly desperate that that is what the insurgency has resorted to because it actually sort of demonstrates to us that ... they will kill civilians indiscriminately in order to get at us."
Mialkowski said Parker had only recently arrived in Afghanistan, taking part in a reconnaissance mission during his short time in the country.
Parker was due to become the deputy director of stability for Regional Command South headquarters -- a posting that would have seen him coordinating ISAF humanitarian and development efforts.
"The job he was going into clearly wasn't to carry a rifle or a machine gun and clear the grape fields of Panjwaii," said Mialkowski.
Mialkowski knew Parker for 20 years and remembered him as a soldier who wouldn't hesitate to challenge his superiors on issues if he thought he was right.
"Even in his very early years in the army, Geoff was the kind of fellow that wouldn't compromise," he said.
"If something was stupid, he would say it and use that kind of language. And we had challenging bosses over the years who Geoff wouldn't always agree with and he certainly would address those."
Parker's wife, Mary Jane, said he was her best friend and father to their kids, Charlie and Alex, in a statement released by the Canadian Forces on Thursday.
"I have known Parker essentially all my life and I, as well as all those who took the time to truly know him, realized he was a kind, caring, sarcastic and supportive friend," she said.
"Never one to back down from a challenge, or what he saw as right, Parker loved the Royals, the Army and Canada. All who knew him, knew of his capacity to work, to care and to be supportive of others."
She added: "The children and I will miss him dearly but know he is watching over us with the encouragement to 'put a smile on and move forward,"' she said. "I know we're not the first, but I pray we are the last."
Parker is the 145th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan. Two civilians have also been killed.
With files from The Canadian Press
