In the pre-dawn darkness, under shoals of brilliant stars, the weary members of 9 Platoon awaken after a few hours' sleep for another day of hunting Taliban.
Soldiers struggle into grimy boots and smelly uniforms so caked with dried sweat they feel like cardboard. Without stopping to eat, they drive to their assembly point to prepare for a sweep of dangerous villages and farms west of Kandahar.
It will be their fourth day in a row of patrolling an area in which Canadian soldiers have been killed and wounded in firefights over the past six weeks.
"Men, hundreds of insurgent fighters are coming into this area. Your efforts are keeping them on the move and we are not going to let up." Lt.-Col. Ian Hope, commander of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry battle group, tells the officers in his command. "I know it's hard and it's hot and dirty but we have to do it."
The effort is part of Operation Mountain Thrust, an international coalition plan to root out Taliban from their strongholds in southern Afghanistan that was officially launched last week. For the Canadians, the operation has been under way for more than a month. The patrol begins near where Capt. Nichola Goddard was killed last month.
Soldiers emerge from the protective armour of their vehicles and slowly move through the village and farms, rifles and submachine-guns at the ready. Using hand signals, they stop and drop to a crouch, scanning homes and the horizon through the scopes of their weapons.
Tensions rise when it becomes clear there are no people around despite the well-tended grape vineyards and fields of marijuana. The terrain is a military nightmare of blind corners, dead-ends and thick-walled mud buildings honeycombed with loopholes.
A few days ago, a firefight exploded in just such a labyrinth when a soldier suddenly turned a corner and saw an insurgent only 50 paces away. The two men blazed away at each other. While neither man was hit, their shots sparked a two-hour battle that resulted in two Canadians being wounded.
PUBLICATION: The Toronto Sun
BY JOHN COTTER
DATE: 2006.06.19
DATE: 2006.06.19
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