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| Afghanistan |
| Deadliest battle for Canadians in 32 years |
| 2006-03-30 |
| KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - At 10 p.m. Tuesday, on a cool, cloudless night in Afghanistan, Private Robert Costall and 30 fellow members of Canada's Quick Reaction Force were scrambled into helicopters at Kandahar Airfield and whisked to the lawless wastes of Sangin district, a difficult corner of a dangerous land. Five hours later, Pte. Costall was dead, and his fellow soldiers were in the midst of the most serious and deadly battle faced by Canadian soldiers in 32 years. A U.S. soldier and an unspecified number of Afghan army troops also died in the battle -- as did a reported 33 Taliban insurgents. Not since the death of three Canadian peacekeepers in 1974 -- killed defending Nicosia airport in Cyprus -- has a Canadian soldier been killed during a firefight with enemy troops. The Battle of Sangin began on Tuesday afternoon in Helmand province in south-central Afghanistan, outside the normal operating area for Canadian soldiers based in the neighbouring province of Kandahar. An Afghan National Army convoy -- on a resupply mission to a forward operating base (FOB) in Sangin district, a remote area in the northern reaches of the Helmand desert -- was ambushed by Taliban insurgents. The Taliban first hit the convoy with small-arms fire and then with a remotely detonated roadside bomb. Eight Afghan soldiers died in the ambush, according to military officials. While the Taliban were temporarily driven off, the disabled convoy became stranded on a lonely road eight kilometres from the FOB -- a collection of tents and dug-in defensive positions surrounded by razor wire and manned by Afghan soldiers and a handful of American troops. On Tuesday night, as troops from the Sangin FOB struggled to get help to the stranded convoy, the base itself came under attack from Taliban forces around its perimeter. Decisions were made in Kandahar to send air support, and British Harrier fighter-bombers were launched, as were American Apache attack helicopters and B-52 heavy bombers. By 10 p.m., Canadian Brigadier-General David Fraser, commander of all coalition forces in southern Afghanistan, also ordered his Quick Reaction Force to support the Afghan and U.S. soldiers under attack at the FOB. A Canadian combat platoon, on special duty this month for rapid deployment anywhere in southern Afghanistan, boarded helicopters for the hour-long flight to Sangin. The Canadians landed in a tight situation; the Sangin FOB was already under siege, but worse was still to come. At around 2 a.m., a "significant force" of Taliban launched their main assault on the base, "during which a pretty fierce firefight ensued," according to British Colonel Chris Vernon, chief of staff to Brig.-Gen. Fraser. Details of the firefight itself remain unclear, yet it appears the coalition troops, firing rifles, machine guns and mortars from inside the FOB, fought off a sustained assault on the base. Col. Vernon also suggested yesterday that many of the Taliban casualties likely came from the air -- from rockets fired by helicopters and the Harrier jets and from bombs dropped by the B-52 bombers. Col. Vernon said that after the main attack was repulsed, coalition air forces destroyed a local compound where insurgents were believed to have taken refuge. Yet Col. Vernon also said the situation remained "a little bit unclear" yesterday, as coalition forces assessed the fallout of the battle from the ground and from the air. What was clear, he said, was that the size and intensity of the Taliban attack had taken coalition army commanders by surprise. "The size and tenacity may have slightly exceeded our estimates," he said. "The Taliban generally operate in small groups of eight to 10 and they will generally avoid confrontation against larger numbers. Their coherence as a fighting unit in Western military terms is not great. Their co-ordination measures are not great ... but the only thing I will say is they are brave. "However, there is always a fine line between bravery and stupidity." Army officials have not yet explained how Pte. Costall and his American and Afghan counterparts were killed or how three other Canadians were wounded before being evacuated by helicopter to Kandahar. Afghan radio reporter Humayon Shaieb, a correspondent for Voice of America, told Col. Vernon he had received reports yesterday that a number of civilians had been killed and homes destroyed when bombs fell on their town during the battle. "I find that very unlikely," Col. Vernon said. "I've seen aerial photographs of the forward operating base. It's in the middle of nowhere, and the Taliban attack came over open ground. "There is not a lot of Afghan habitation in that area at all. So I cannot see in any way how any degree of civilian damage could have been done." Sangin is a clear line of communication for the Taliban because it is part of the Helmand River valley, where several roads converge and then move northward. It sits in the heart of a major poppy-growing area for the opium trade, which helps fuel the Afghan insurgency. The Sangin FOB is meant to give the Afghan army and its coalition allies a military presence in the area, in the hopes of bringing law and order to the district. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #12 Why do I get the impression that the whole FOB concept and operating principle is similar in concept and operating principle to the Firebase concept and operating principle used in Viet Nam? It failed there (overall, although on the whole it did appear to be successful for awhile) so why are we using it here? Doesn't anyone learn from history? This isn't cowboys and indians and forts on the friggin' frontier. |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2006-03-30 22:59 |
| #11 May Pte. Costall rest in peace. |
| Posted by: john 2006-03-30 20:15 |
| #10 Don't be surprised to read the Canadian Left Press (which is basically all of Canadian media) calling this Canada's modern-day Dieppe! Quagmire, Bush's War, blah, blah, balh , blah... |
| Posted by: Happy 88mm 2006-03-30 19:22 |
| #9 I loved that quote too, RD! A very fine line, indeed for many! |
| Posted by: BA 2006-03-30 12:22 |
| #8 Col. Vernon, "However, there is always a fine line between bravery and stupidity." |
| Posted by: RD 2006-03-30 11:00 |
| #7 The Princess Pats kicked some serious butt! |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2006-03-30 10:53 |
| #6 The body count following a B-52 strike is usually: zero. This includes any and all lifeforms down to the larger insects. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-03-30 10:22 |
| #5 wxjames, if you recall, there was a Danish cartoon where mohammed was telling the explo-jihadis to stop, since they had run out of virgins. This was a quintuple offense to muslims, because the cartoon: 1. Stated that they blew things and people up, along with themselves. 2. Stated that they blew things and people up mainly for sex with multiple virgins. 3. Depicted mohammed (PTUI). 4. Implied that Islamic heaven has limits, since they ran out of virgins. 5. Implied that Allah was not omnipotent, because he could not create more virgins for the Explo-jihadis when the original supply ran out. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2006-03-30 10:08 |
| #4 Oops, on second glance, I see 33 dead applicants. Applications are being accepted for reward virgins. When the new shipment of |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-03-30 09:13 |
| #3 So, no mention of enemy loses. What's the over/under on this action ? 20 ? 30 ? |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-03-30 09:09 |
| #2 Poppy shepherds, if you will. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-03-30 08:38 |
| #1 It sits in the heart of a major poppy-growing area for the opium trade, which helps fuel the Afghan insurgency. And that is why the "Taliban" group was bigger than 8-10. Maybe a few "taliban" sprinkled in, but for the most part drug smugglers and hired guns trying to drive off outsiders. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-03-30 08:22 |