Sunday, October 28, 2007

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan - Capt. Philippe Sauve points to the rocky patch of ground that was covered with wounded Afghans -- sitting up on chairs, lying in stretchers and bleeding with bomb-blast injuries both serious and superficial.

Two weeks ago, a suicide bomber set off a massive explosion at a market in the border town of Spin Boldak, killing 11 and injuring 36 -- a significant casualty number for a single blast. A fleet of pickup trucks transferred the wounded to Forward Operating Base Spin Boldak for first aid before sending them to Kandahar Airfield or a local hospital.

"At first when they called us, they said there was 12 injured people, then there was 24 and finally there was 36," said Suave, second in command of the Quebec-based reconnaissance squadron at the base.

Two-hundred metres from the triage site and Sauve's office, the Canadian captain's Afghan peer believes these types of attacks are turning the population against the Taliban.

Capt. Hezrat Wali, a former mujahedeen fighter who now commands an Afghan National Army reconnaissance company on the border, said he's confident the tide is turning against the Taliban in the border province.

During his recent patrols through local villages, his men have learned that villagers have sometimes offered their homes to the Taliban passing across the porous border with Pakistan. With the suicide attacks wounding and killing civilians, that is changing, Wali said.

"It's clear for all the people that the Taliban are not good people," Wali said through an interpreter as his soldiers played volleyball outside his office.

"Now the villagers are not willing to hide them."
Canada.com

October 27, 2007

Soldiers still paying tribute and mourning loss of popular sergeant major

By Bill Graveland, THE CANADIAN PRESS

FORWARD OPERATING BASE WILSON, Afghanistan - There is something completely incongruous about a cute, cuddly children's toy strapped to the front of a vehicle capable of dispensing death.

The Light Armoured Vehicle (LAV) is a favourite of the Canadian military and sports both a machine-gun and a 25-mm cannon. The Taliban refer to the cannon as the "magic gun" because once it hits a target the person disappears.

This Canadian base west of Kandahar is literally awash in ankle deep sand. The terrain is flat with the exception of mountains rising above the ever-changing landscape in the distance.
canoe

Harper makes first trip to Van Doos' base

Marianne White
CanWest News Service

Sunday, October 28, 2007

VALCARTIER, Que. - For the first time, Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Saturday visited Canadian Forces Base Valcartier, home to the Royal 22nd Regiment, leading the Canadian troops in Afghanistan.

The famed Quebec regiment, often referred to as the Van Doos, has about 2,300 troops serving in the province of Kandahar for a six-month tour.

Harper paid tribute to the families of the soldiers, who he said are doing "a difficult job" in Afghanistan.

"We are here for you tonight," he told the crowd of 600. "We don't say it often enough, but the families of the soldiers are heroes as much as the soldiers themselves."

Harper was speaking at a fundraiser for the Valcartier family centre, which offers help and counselling to the families of soldiers before, during and after their mission.

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Originally posted by Webgear:
I think AMSabourin is reporting military related news each day. He/she has not made any comments in similar postings, just posted articles.

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Special Report: No east or west on Kandahar wards
Even suspected Taliban soldiers get Canadian care

Sun Oct 28 2007
KANDAHAR -- After a few nerve-wracking nights of rocket attacks, the sky is mercifully dark above the Kandahar Airfield hospital, but the deep drone of a helicopter signals that new patients are on the way.
A cluster of Canadian medics waits at the hospital entrance, chatting casually at first, but quieting as an ambulance pulls up.

Then the group moves into action, quickly unloading a motionless man with a bruised, bloodied face, then an unconscious 12-year-old boy, who lies shirtless on a stretcher, looking thin and fragile.

The victims, both Afghans, are rushed off to a trauma bay. They were hurt in a motorcycle accident. Maybe it was a run-of-the-mill traffic collision, or perhaps the result of a roadside bomb, a common occurrence in Kandahar province.

Treating locals is a daily occurrence at the Role 3 Multinational Medical Unit, where 85 per cent of patients are not Canadian or even international soldiers, but Afghans.

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This is militaristic spam. I'm closing this. Don't bother starting a new one today or tomorrow.

Read the policy statement you agreed to when you signed up, AMSabourin. Or maybe read a few threads so you can get a feel for the type of community you've joined.

[ 28 October 2007: Message edited by: Michelle ]