Sunday, July 02, 2006
Glengarry.
Christina And C Company.
Sunday Times journalist Christina Lamb gives a terrifying account of a Taliban ambush in the Helmand province of Afghanistan while she and photographer Justin Sutcliffe were traveling with 48 men from C company of the 3rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment and an attachment of airborne troops from the Royal Irish Rangers.
I hurled myself into an irrigation ditch and crouched amid the tall reeds, the soil just above me flying up as bullets landed all around. Then firing started coming from behind too. The Taliban had us from three sides.
Have you ever used a pistol?” yelled Sergeant-Major Mick Bolton amid the Kalashnikov fire and bursts from a machinegun as we ran across a baked-mud field and dived for cover. “If it comes down to it, everyone’s going to have to fight.”
For the next two hours we were trapped under such relentless fire that we thought we would be killed. The ambush of our lightly armed patrol not only was unexpected but also brought into question the entire strategy being pursued by the British in Helmand, the huge province they have taken on.
I have been in some hairy situations, not least in Afghanistan, a country that I love, where at the age of 22 I was trapped in trenches by Russian tanks with a group of mujaheddin. But this was the first time in my life that I thought I would not survive.
Worse, I looked at the taut faces around me — and could see the soldiers thought that too.
Then came the reassuring sound of the Apaches, almost two hours after they had been requested.
The Ministry of Defence put out nothing. If Justin and I had not been there, you would probably never have read about it.
And in another Sunday Times column, Christina illustrates the huge gap in thinking between London and reality on the ground.
Someone has come up with the idea of making a film to show locals. It comprises five minutes of the underwater BBC series Blue Planet, followed by a message from the governor of Helmand and the coalition forces, followed by five more minutes of Blue Planet.
The tribal leaders of Gereshk sat in utter bafflement as images of whales and dolphins were projected on the wall.
How ridiculous can it get?
This morning it was announced that TWO UK SOLDIERS WERE KILLED YESTERDAY along with an interpreter, and other troops injured, in the Helmand town of Sangin.
See all recent posts.
I hurled myself into an irrigation ditch and crouched amid the tall reeds, the soil just above me flying up as bullets landed all around. Then firing started coming from behind too. The Taliban had us from three sides.
Have you ever used a pistol?” yelled Sergeant-Major Mick Bolton amid the Kalashnikov fire and bursts from a machinegun as we ran across a baked-mud field and dived for cover. “If it comes down to it, everyone’s going to have to fight.”
For the next two hours we were trapped under such relentless fire that we thought we would be killed. The ambush of our lightly armed patrol not only was unexpected but also brought into question the entire strategy being pursued by the British in Helmand, the huge province they have taken on.
I have been in some hairy situations, not least in Afghanistan, a country that I love, where at the age of 22 I was trapped in trenches by Russian tanks with a group of mujaheddin. But this was the first time in my life that I thought I would not survive.
Worse, I looked at the taut faces around me — and could see the soldiers thought that too.
Then came the reassuring sound of the Apaches, almost two hours after they had been requested.
The Ministry of Defence put out nothing. If Justin and I had not been there, you would probably never have read about it.
And in another Sunday Times column, Christina illustrates the huge gap in thinking between London and reality on the ground.
Someone has come up with the idea of making a film to show locals. It comprises five minutes of the underwater BBC series Blue Planet, followed by a message from the governor of Helmand and the coalition forces, followed by five more minutes of Blue Planet.
The tribal leaders of Gereshk sat in utter bafflement as images of whales and dolphins were projected on the wall.
How ridiculous can it get?
This morning it was announced that TWO UK SOLDIERS WERE KILLED YESTERDAY along with an interpreter, and other troops injured, in the Helmand town of Sangin.
See all recent posts.
© Colcam 2005-2007
