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Topic: Afghanistan - 3rd Battalion, The Royal 22nd Regiment. 07-08 (Read 5596 times)
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Elsewhere...
Afghan suicide blast 'kills 40'
Politicians and schoolchildren were among at least 40 people killed in a suicide attack in northern Afghanistan, hospital and provincial officials say.
The scene of the attack in the province of Baghlan was left littered with bodies and splattered with blood in one of the worst attacks in recent times.
The attack was condemned by the Afghan president, the White House and the UN.
Analysts say suicide attacks are rare in this area, and the bombing shows the reach of the insurgency is growing.
The Taleban, al-Qaeda and other militant groups are fighting thousands of Afghan and foreign troops in Afghanistan.
Bodies
The bomb exploded at a sugar factory in a town in Baghlan province while a delegation of parliamentarians was visiting - at least six of whom died.
Among the MPs killed was Mustafa Kazimi, a former mujahideen fighter and prominent opposition figure.
Schoolchildren who had gathered to welcome the politicians were also killed.
"I saw bodies lying in the streets and some of the people were stealing the weapons of the dead soldiers," local resident Mohammad Rahim told Reuters news agency.
"Children are screaming for help. It's like a nightmare," said Mr Rahim, who said the blast had killed his two cousins, both schoolgirls.
The deputy mayor of Baghlan province said that two disembodied legs were all that remained of the bomber following the attack. The bomber's identity is unknown.
The head of hospitals in Baghlan, Yousuf Faiz, told AFP news agency 40 dead and 120 wounded had been registered at four hospitals.
Meanwhile provincial security chief Abdurrahman Sayedkhail told Reuters he was aware of 50 dead, though some relatives had taken bodies away themselves.
Taleban denial
President Karzai condemned the "heinous" attack - one of the worst since the ousting of the Taleban in 2001 - "in the strongest possible terms", he said in a statement.
"It is the work of the enemies of peace and security in Afghanistan," he said.
The attack was "a despicable act of cowardice and it reminds us who the enemy is", said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed "his continuing anxiety regarding the unstable security situation throughout Afghanistan".
A Taleban spokesman condemned the attack and denied the Taleban were behind it.
However, suicide bombs in Afghanistan have until now been exclusively the work of the Taleban and al-Qaeda, our correspondent says.
In separate developments:
* Canadian Defence Minister Peter Mackay narrowly avoided being injured by a rocket fired by insurgents at a Canadian military outpost in Kandahar province. Four Canadian soldiers were lightly wounded
* Taleban militants on motorbikes and in pick-up trucks captured an important district in the province of Day Kundi - the third district captured in a week.
Violence
Until now, most suicide attacks have taken place in the south and east of Afghanistan or, less frequently, in Kabul.
But the UN says the number of suicide attacks is rising sharply. Insurgent attacks have also been on the increase in areas of central and even northern Afghanistan - where violence had tended to take the form of common crime rather than political attacks, says our correspondent.
Fighters loyal to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar - a former mujahideen leader who is battling the Kabul government independently from the Taleban - are known to be active in Baghlan, says BBC analyst Pam O'Toole.
Civilians have often been the victims of the violence in Afghanistan - not only in attacks by insurgents, but also in strikes by the foreign Nato and US forces in the country.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Online
Gender:
Posts: 3261
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Coincidence? Hopefully, the general is correct...
Taliban attacks fuel tactical worries
Near miss on MacKay, suicide blast suggest improved capacity to gather intelligence
GRAEME SMITH
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
November 7, 2007 at 3:16 AM EST
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — The Taliban are getting increasingly sophisticated as they try to assassinate leaders, analysts worry, after a suicide bomber killed six Afghan parliamentarians among scores of others and rockets landed near visiting Defence Minister Peter MacKay Tuesday.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi refused to say whether his men knew Mr. MacKay was visiting a small Canadian desert base, about 20 kilometres west of Kandahar city, when insurgents fired two rockets at the outpost.
But a local Taliban commander who operates in Zhari district, near Forward Operating Base Wilson, said his group received a phone call from their superiors in Pakistan earlier in the day with specific instructions to attack the base.
"We got information that a big Canadian leader came to Zhari," the low-ranking insurgent said. "So we attacked him."
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The Globe and Mail
Taliban are prone to empty boasting, and a military spokesman said the Canadians have no reason to believe that Mr. MacKay was targeted personally. The minister wasn't hurt, although four Canadian soldiers suffered minor injuries.
The insurgents were more successful later, when a suicide blast killed at least 40 people and injured 120 others during a visit by dignitaries to a sugar factory in a northern province.
It was the deadliest attack since the 2001 invasion, and the most effective against high-profile targets. Among the dead is the head of the Afghan parliament's economics committee, and the injured include the country's deputy agriculture minister.
"This shows the gravity of the situation," said Seth Jones, an analyst at RAND Corporation, who last visited Kandahar a few weeks ago. "The Taliban have improved their ability to gather live intelligence and execute on that information."
If a group of local Taliban did receive orders to attack Mr. MacKay, it would mark a departure from the insurgents' usual way of working, Mr. Jones said, because the Taliban are usually a loosely knit collection of fighting units. The insurgents get their strategic planning from above, but their masters don't often exert the sort of command and control found in a regular military operation.
In Ottawa, Chief of the Defence Staff General Rick Hillier said he did not think the attack was aimed at Mr. MacKay. "No, I do not believe he was targeted," he said. "These are things that occurred coincidentally in time and space."
Afghanistan's suicide bombers are also considered the worst trained in the world; a recent United Nations study found that although the number of suicide attacks increased sevenfold last year, the bombers often kill only themselves.
But the Taliban's co-ordination has been improving. In February, the insurgents learned of an unscheduled visit by U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney and launched a suicide attack on a northern base during his short stay.
Last week's fighting in Arghandab district also showed a degree of sophistication, as the insurgents kicked up diversions in several other parts of the province to distract government forces from the main offensive north of Kandahar city.
Still, Mr. MacKay looked unruffled and calm as he talked about the rocket attack, describing it several hours afterward as a typical episode in the war.
"There was a rocket attack that I'm told is not unlike some other attacks we've seen in the past," the minister said.
The Taliban often launch old Russian 107-millimetre rockets at larger military bases in Afghanistan, but they usually lack any aiming devices for the weapons and they rarely inflict serious damage. An accurate hit on a small base is far less common.
"It's the first time, a shell like this," Colonel Stéphane Lafaut, commander of the Canadian military's Operational Liaison Mentoring Team, told reporters who accompanied Mr. MacKay, speaking during the first moments after the impact. Rocket fire has been aimed at FOB Wilson only one other time in the past month, Col. Lafaut said.
"Today it seems they have a special interest, I don't know why, eh?" he said with humour, although he added that it's unclear whether the attack was related to the minister's visit.
The first rocket landed around 11 a.m. local time, and a pool reporter for The Canadian Press saw Mr. MacKay's bodyguards scramble for their helmets, clutch their guns, and quickly summon a light armoured vehicle to serve as an improvised bunker for the minister.
"There was an explosion. It was a loud bang," Mr. MacKay said. "When it happened, we heard the explosion, we heard the whistle overhead, we were told to get down and we did." He continued: "Everything went like clockwork. We were taken out of harm's way very quickly, put in an armoured vehicle, the people who I'm travelling with are consummate professionals."
A second rocket arrived about 15 minutes later and hit the base itself, a concrete-walled compound roughly the size of a football field.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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Logged
Well, way to go Taliban.. you killed a bunch of your own people.... many of them children.. you must feel real proud today , huh??? Cowards.....ranrad
