Insurgents Attack Canadian Base in Afghanistan

[17thRecceSgt]

http://sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060513/afghanistan_attack_060513

Insurgents attack Canadian base in Afghanistan
CTV.ca News

Two explosions rocked Kandahar airfield -- the base for Canadian troops in Afghanistan -- just before 9 p.m. local time on Saturday.

There were no casualties from the attack, said CTV's Janis Mackey Frayer, reporting from Kandahar.

"Military officials are saying it was a suspected rocket attack by Taliban fighters in the area," Mackey Frayer told CTV Newsnet.

"They have yet to confirm whether it was rockets or mortars, but rockets would be in keeping with the pattern that has been established in previous attacks."

Saturday's attack marks the fifth such strike at the base since Canadian troops arrived at the end of February.

In previous attacks insurgents have fired Soviet-built 107-mm rockets. They are typically fired from crude improvised launching sites and have a range of up to nine kilometres, Mackey Frayer said.


Troops were immediately dispatched to try and locate the launch site and the insurgents who staged the attack, Mackey Frayer said.

The attacks may be proof of a stepped-up spring campaign by Taliban insurgents against coalition forces in Afghanistan.

"There has been an increase in activities over the last few weeks," Mackey Frayer said. "There have been more bombs and there have been some rocket attacks like this, so it would be in keeping with what some officials say is a stepped up spring campaign by Taliban insurgents."

 

[Franko]

Must be another slow news day again.    :

Regards

 

[17thRecceSgt]

Maybe things are alittle tight-lipped after the events regarding publishing certain pictures recently and thats all the have to talk about on that???  but they have to "keep the issue fresh in the public's mind"...

Oh well. 

 

[Old Guy]

A couple of rockets constitutes an 'attack' on the camp?

Where were these newsies when Charlie was keeping us awake with 10-20 mortar rounds and a couple rockets almost every night at Vinh Long -- back in the summer of '68.

Not born yet, I suppose.  I keep forgetting I'm so ancient.

Still, they would have called that level of effort a 'major attack', I imagine.

We called it 'harassment'.

LOL.

Jim

 

[pbi]

Interesting how they start out by making it seem like the attack was directed at Canadians. CBC spun it a bit differently this morning:

Rockets fired at Canadian base
Last Updated Sat, 13 May 2006 20:10:34 EDT
CBC News
Suspected Taliban militants fired two rockets at Canada's main base in Kandahar Saturday, military officials said.

There were no casualties.

It was the fifth such attack since Canadian troops began their latest tour of duty in Afghanistan earlier this year.

Coalition helicopters and ground patrols searched for the assailants, but were unable to find them.

The rockets were believed to be Soviet-era weapons with a range of about nine kilometres.

The previous two attacks happened April 23.

Canada has about 2,300 troops at the Kandahar base, along with soldiers from the United States, Britain and the Netherlands.

It was not known whether the assailants were aiming at the Canadian troops.

At least the CBC came clean at the end: these 107mm rockets are pretty inaccurate, and are always coming in now and then. We had a few at Bagram when I was there, which did nothing: I only knew about them because the alert went off. On a base the size of Bagram or Kandahar, it's not likely that these things will do much damage, and even harder (IMHO) to say for sure who they were aimed at. Frightening if they land near you, or if you are in a small FOB, but IMHO overall these things are more a harassment than a powerful destructive weapon.

Cheers

 

[GAP]

Re: Insurgents Attack Canadian Base in Afghanistan
« Reply #3 on: Yesterday at 22:30:09 » Quote 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A couple of rockets constitutes an 'attack' on the camp?

Where were these newsies when Charlie was keeping us awake with 10-20 mortar rounds and a couple rockets almost every night at Vinh Long -- back in the summer of '68.

Not born yet, I suppose.  I keep forgetting I'm so ancient.

Still, they would have called that level of effort a 'major attack', I imagine.

We called it 'harassment'.

LOL.

Jim 

We painted a target on the roof of your Quonset they were such bad shots with their mortars. Rockets were always iffy...Nobody knew where they were going to land, especially the guys shooting them!
But you are right...10 - 15 a day, normal (Cua Viet - I Corps). Now 800-900 a day at Khe San....well they were busy little boys..the true meaning of "duck & cover"

 

[Old Guy]

Gap,

My floppy hat is off to ya, man.  I spent all my time in IV Corps, Bien Hoa, Cu Chi, Dong Tam and Vinh Long.  After Tet '68 there weren't very many real VC left.  I think they had a batch of mortar teams running around in the Delta, just letting us know they hadn't all gone to that great cooperative in the sky. 

A guy from my high school was killed up north in February '67.  Can't recall off the top of my head if he was in the 3rd Marines or not.

My helicopter company (CH-47A) lost about a dozen guys, but that was spread over a 4-year timespan. 

At Dong Tam, we had one casualty from mortars in a 3-month perior.  None at all at Vinh Long during a similar period.

And you're right, 800-900 rounds a day are a little more than harassment.  At some points during the Khe San battle the NVA managed to hit the place with real artillery -- 152mm stuff, if I remember correctly.  Now THAT's bad news.

Jim

 

[GAP]

Most of the real heavy stuff came in from Cambodia. We had nothing, other than air (not all that feasible during Monsoon) to reach them.

I don't want this thread to get sidetracked, and  must point out that whether it is one or two, or a dozen, incoming is incoming and does exercise the sphincter.  ;D

 

[mainerjohnthomas]

    Some of the brethren may be wandering a bit off-topic, but the point is valid.  What the CBC wants to pass off as an attack is the sort of thing the rest of us had a chance to get used to.  You hit the ground if its close, but if nothing else follows, you get up, continue bitching about the hockey pool, whose turn it is to refule the genny, and whats on at the mess.  The media likes to paint the picture like our troops are huddled terrified in their holes, and that is total cr@p.  Those rockets they are firing are not totally harmless, but you have a better chance of falling off your LAV and snapping your neck than one of these rockets landing on you.

 

[Kat Stevens]

.... In further news, people drive too fast on the 401, and smoking is linked to cancer.

 

[couchcommander]

I think whoever said "it must have been a slow news day" got it right.

They've completely ignored plenty of rocket attacks before. Not that it shouldn't be reported... but I mean you gotta love the headline....

I was expecting to read something more long the lines of "A fierce gunbattle ensued..."

But I wonder what the headline would be if someone threw a rock at the CBC jeep? "Afghan's Riot at Foreign Media Presence"?

 

[17thRecceSgt]

I actually thuoght there would be more "oh, it was only that" replies on this one...when I saw the Headline on the website...and then clicked...and read...I was thinking "oh, just a few rockets.  so no attack on the base (attack on the base to me, I picture soldiers and insurgents/Taliban in firefights and the like).

I hope the reporters don't hear a vehicle backfire ...

"Snipers fire on...no one hurt but..."

 

[Edward Campbell]

...

But I wonder what the headline would be if someone threw a rock at the CBC jeep? "Afghan's Riot at Foreign Media Presence"?

Brave journalists fend off attack by militants
Canadian soldiers unwilling to defend the precious hides of brilliant reporters - should be in Darfur, experts say

 

[Ahkenaten]

"A couple of rockets constitutes an 'attack' on the camp?"

No. Apparently a couple of rocket attacks constitutes a "Spring Offensive".



Ahk

"Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds."
--Buddha

 

[George Wallace]

"A couple of rockets constitutes an 'attack' on the camp?"

No. Apparently a couple of rocket attacks constitutes a "Spring Offensive".



Ahk

"Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds."
--Buddha

You ought to call Michael Harris the Talk Show Host on CFRA......

 

[Ahkenaten]

"You ought to call Michael Harris the Talk Show Host on CFRA....."


#1:  Why? What's he have to say?


#2:  I have a sack of potatoes that can talk? Does that qualify as a radio talk show host?



Ahk
"Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds."
--Buddha