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From CTV:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1124463532089_119872732/?hub=World
Canadians in Kandahar fire shots in self-defence
CTV.ca News Staff
Canadian soldiers fired their first shots in self-defence on Thursday since arriving in the volatile southern Afghan province of Kandahar late last month.
Troops were patrolling the streets during the country's Independence Day celebrations when a van tried to overtake their convoy from behind.
A military spokesman has said there were concerns that the driver might be a suicide bomber so a gunner fired four rounds into the vehicle's engine block to disable it.
According to initial reports, no one is believed to have been injured during the incident.
On Thursday, a roadside bomb explosion in southern Afghanistan killed two American soldiers and wounded another two, according to U.S. military officials.
The troops were travelling in an armoured vehicle north of Kandahar, part of a convoy supporting a road construction project.
"These terrorists are attacking the very forces working to improve Afghanistan," Brig. Gen. Jack Sterling, a deputy commander of the U.S.-led coalition, told The Associated Press.
"It's unconscionable that the Taliban would do something like this. They only offer death and continued suffering to the people of Afghanistan."
Canada has deployed 250 soldiers to Kandahar, widely known as a hotbed of militant activity, to provide security in the area surrounding their compound for Afghanistan's national elections on Sept. 18.
Canada is also taking over the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) and responsibility for the area surrounding it from an American team that had been in the region for almost two years.
Over the next two months, the PRT will work with other NATO countries on security and reconstruction efforts, while promoting diplomacy in the southern Afghan provinces.
Its mission is the third phase of a NATO expansion that will eventually take over the reins from the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
Col. Steve Noonan, the PRT's task force commander, has acknowledged that the threat level in Kandahar is greater than when troops were in the capital city of Kabul, where they were stationed earlier.
"We acknowledge and understand the risk," he said.
"This is what we have trained for. This is what we've prepared for."
While Afghanistan is considered to be relatively safer for military personnel when compared to countries such as Iraq, Canadians should not discount the fact that some of their soldiers will not be coming home, one defence expert said.
"I think any country, such as our good friends and neighbours the Canadians, sending (more than) 1,500 troops to Afghanistan has to expect a number of casualties in the coming months," said Brookings Institution scholar Michael O'Hanlon, appearing on CTV's Question Period last month.
So,
Tell me why embedded reporters are good?
ROE's - use of deadly force...was it justified?
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1124463532089_119872732/?hub=World
Canadians in Kandahar fire shots in self-defence
CTV.ca News Staff
Canadian soldiers fired their first shots in self-defence on Thursday since arriving in the volatile southern Afghan province of Kandahar late last month.
Troops were patrolling the streets during the country's Independence Day celebrations when a van tried to overtake their convoy from behind.
A military spokesman has said there were concerns that the driver might be a suicide bomber so a gunner fired four rounds into the vehicle's engine block to disable it.
According to initial reports, no one is believed to have been injured during the incident.
On Thursday, a roadside bomb explosion in southern Afghanistan killed two American soldiers and wounded another two, according to U.S. military officials.
The troops were travelling in an armoured vehicle north of Kandahar, part of a convoy supporting a road construction project.
"These terrorists are attacking the very forces working to improve Afghanistan," Brig. Gen. Jack Sterling, a deputy commander of the U.S.-led coalition, told The Associated Press.
"It's unconscionable that the Taliban would do something like this. They only offer death and continued suffering to the people of Afghanistan."
Canada has deployed 250 soldiers to Kandahar, widely known as a hotbed of militant activity, to provide security in the area surrounding their compound for Afghanistan's national elections on Sept. 18.
Canada is also taking over the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) and responsibility for the area surrounding it from an American team that had been in the region for almost two years.
Over the next two months, the PRT will work with other NATO countries on security and reconstruction efforts, while promoting diplomacy in the southern Afghan provinces.
Its mission is the third phase of a NATO expansion that will eventually take over the reins from the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
Col. Steve Noonan, the PRT's task force commander, has acknowledged that the threat level in Kandahar is greater than when troops were in the capital city of Kabul, where they were stationed earlier.
"We acknowledge and understand the risk," he said.
"This is what we have trained for. This is what we've prepared for."
While Afghanistan is considered to be relatively safer for military personnel when compared to countries such as Iraq, Canadians should not discount the fact that some of their soldiers will not be coming home, one defence expert said.
"I think any country, such as our good friends and neighbours the Canadians, sending (more than) 1,500 troops to Afghanistan has to expect a number of casualties in the coming months," said Brookings Institution scholar Michael O'Hanlon, appearing on CTV's Question Period last month.
So,
Tell me why embedded reporters are good?
ROE's - use of deadly force...was it justified?
