Soldiers tears for comrades
As the dust cleared around them, revealing the terribly injured body of one of their comrades, the fusiliers knew that the horror might have only just begun.
Three of their number had died on Thursday in the same green zone south of Sangin — killed by a secondary device that exploded among soldiers trying to rescue the wounded from the first blast.
Shortly after first light on Sunday, the same was about to happen again, killing three more British soldiers and taking the death toll to 204.
As the troops of 3 Platoon, A Company, 2 Rifles battlegroup carried their casualty through reeds on the bank of the Helmand River towards ground that was clear enough for a medical helicopter to land upon, another blast ripped through them.
“I was blown on to my backside,” said Sergeant-Major Pete Burney. “I thought, ‘That’s me then’ but as I picked myself up I saw I hadn’t a scratch. Then I realised we were among a belt of IEDs [improvised explosive devices].”
To his right he could see a medic, a woman who seconds earlier had been attempting to resuscitate the first casualty, but who had been blown past him and lay wounded on the ground. Another fusilier and a Royal Military Police corporal were injured. A fusilier lay dead among more IEDs.
Sangin has become synonymous with the Taleban’s weapon of choice. The town once notorious for the gun battles between British soldiers and the Taleban is now the focus of an intensive bombing campaign by the insurgents before this week’s elections in Afghanistan.
2 Rifles has suffered more casualties over the 4½ months of its tour than any British unit serving in Helmand. Twenty soldiers have been killed from the mixed unit of riflemen and fusiliers, including six in the past week. The number of wounded, a figure that cannot be disclosed for security reasons, ranks alongside that suffered by British infantry units during fighting in Europe in the Second World War.
The bombs — activated by a soldier’s foot, a command wire, or radio wave — are multiplying in number and sophistication, swamping the best efforts of British engineers and explosives experts. A total of 303 bombs have been found by the battlegroup since their tour began on April 10, up from the 283 found during the previous unit’s six-month deployment. During one operation troops came across 30 in a day.
“The enemy intent is clear: to block us in with a series of defensive IED belts which stop us from engaging with the local population,” said Major Karl Hickman, A Company’s commanding officer, who has lost ten soldiers to the bombers.
A number of triple amputations have been among the casualties. There have been lucky escapes too. Corporal Ryan Hone, 23, a section commander in 2 Platoon, 2 Rifles, has been blown up or over four times by IEDS. “I’ve still got five lives left,” he said yesterday. “Of course it worries us all a bit but I’ve got to show the lads we’ve got a job to do.”
Sometimes the soldiers rely on the naked eye to spot the bombs, while at other times intuition plays a factor in survival. Fijian troops serving in the battlegroup have an uncanny reputation for anticipating bombs by spotting discrepancies in the behaviour of locals.
