'With a muffled thump and the flash of a "second sun," Canadian soldiers faced another brush with death Wednesday as a suicide bomber hit their convoy. There were no Canadian casualties but one Afghan civilian was hurt...

...the suicide bomber drove from an adjacent lane into the side of the Nyala RG-31, which was part of a convoy returning from a supply mission west of Kandahar...

...With blown tires, a rumpled front end and a shattered side window, the limping Nyala was driven back to the PRT camp by Cpl. Scott Rhoads of Stratford, Ont. Smoke billowed from several corners of the vehicle...

...The Nyala is part of a fleet of million-dollar-plus armoured personnel carriers built to survive mine strikes.

The Canadian government rushed the vehicles into service in Afghanistan earlier this year, flying them directly from their South African factory two at a time aboard rented Russian cargo planes.' Canadians escape suicide blast

There was such little damage to the vehicle that the army allowed pictures of it to be published, saying that the bombers could learn nothing from them. Apparently the US has some in Iraq, too. Why not more? It seems to be the answer (strictly in terms of military transport) to IEDs and suicide bombers.