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Live Fire in Afghanistan

Gunnar

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Canadian troops seize guns, drugs in Kabul raid

Canadian Press

KABUL â ” Canadian soldiers launched an early-morning raid Sunday on a compound in Kabul, arresting suspected terrorists and seizing drugs, cash and weapons in their first offensive action since arriving in Afghanistan last August.

After quietly surrounding the compound in the city‘s south end, it took just seconds for the heavily-armed soldiers to scale its three-metre-high, mud-brick walls and rush the buildings inside.

Shouts of "Get down, get down" could be heard from the soldiers as the compound‘s 49 still-sleepy residents met their uninvited guests.

"Over here, over here," yelled one soldier after discovering several men huddled close to an outhouse in one corner of the filthy courtyard. Guns were pointed, doors smashed open and children sent fleeing into their mothers‘ arms in what seemed like a frenzy of activity after days of calm preparation.

"This is the type of operation that we train for over and over again back in Canada," said Maj. John Vass, commander of the Royal Canadian Regiment‘s Parachute Company.

"It was a great feeling for the soldiers. They finally got to do a live-fire raid."

Nearly 200 soldiers, in concert with Kabul police, launched the raid with the hope of capturing some of the city‘s most notorious drug lords.

Only one shot was fired: a shotgun blast to open a locked door. A second blast would have been heard, had the gun not inexplicably jammed. Where the shotgun failed, the shoulder of a burly infantryman was successful in clearing a passageway.

The only injury was sustained by a soldier who hurt his leg slightly and received a cut to the face when he fell into a deep, open sewer hole in the darkened street outside the compound.

The raid ended with the arrest of 16 men, ranging in age from 16 to 70, who are suspected of participating in the thriving drug trade that fuels terrorist organizations in Afghanistan.

Canadian military officials, citing intelligence sources, linked at least some of the men to Gulbuddin Hikmatyar, founder of the radical Muslim terrorist group Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin (HIG), an organization with long-established ties to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Two AK-47 assault rifles were seized during the raid, along with several large plastic bags stuffed with unknown quantities of money and drugs.

As the suspects were herded out of a building and lined up against a wall in the centre of the compound, one of the men began shaking and crying.

"What‘s going on? Am I going to die?" the man asked through an interpreter, his hands held behind him with plastic binding and his head covered by a green plastic-mesh bag.

A Canadian soldier instructed the interpreter to tell the nervous suspect and the others to remain calm, adding that they wouldn‘t be harmed if they did what they were told.

Until now, British soldiers have been the only international forces directly targeting terrorists and drug operations in Kabul.

That all changed with "Operation Tsunami," said Lt.-Col. Don Denne, the commanding officer at Canadian Forces‘ Camp Julien, who was in constant radio contact with front-line soldiers during the raid.

"If there‘s one message that will be hoisted in by any criminal element ... it‘s going to be that there‘s more than just one player in town," Denne said afterward.

"We‘re now playing."

As the operation was completed, seven confused-looking children who appeared to range in age from about two to 12 were allowed to leave the centre building, shivering as they walked barefoot across the muddy, feces-covered courtyard to the corner outhouse.

The suspects were taken away, transported in Canadian Forces light armoured vehicles to be interrogated at a police station about two kilometres away.

Later, several of the men were turned over to investigators at Camp Julien, the largest Canadian Forces base in Afghanistan, where nearly 2,000 soldiers are housed as part of the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF.

"This will go a long way to assisting the Kabul city police in gaining the confidence of the local population," predicted Vass, the Parachute Company commander.

"They were also a key player and were also responsible for taking down a possible drug node (operation) or a possible terrorist."
 
glad to hear nobody was seriously hurt, and that they finally got to practice what they‘ve trained for so extensively. Could anyone tell me if Afghanistan is a Chpt. 6 or 7 UN mandate? I have a funny feeling its 7...
 
That‘s good work, hopefully they will do more raids like that in the future.

Anybody think JTF2 could have been envolved or would that have been to easy for them?
 
No raid like this is too easy for anyone...circumstances change and if you think something gets too easy then people end up dying.
 
The easiest way to remember the difference is Chapter 6 is peacekeeping (separating two warring factions according to an agreement signed by both sides - ala Cyprus, Ethiopia/Eritria) and Chapter 7 is peace enforcement (SFOR - Bosnia, ISAF - Afghanistan, UNAMSIL - Sierra Leone, etc).
 
yah..I still wasnt sure if Afghanistan was running under a Chapter 7 mandate for sure. I like to use Rwanda as a good example..UNAMIR1 was more of a political stand...simply making a presence in the country and holding some leverage over the government and their decisions.

UNAMIR2 was then introduced, and they came in after the genocide began and was evidently not going to stop without force.
 
scm77 is clearly stated Jump Company so I‘m guessing it was paratroopers doing the raid.
 
It is good to see that there was no serious injury. I‘m glad that I‘m not the guy who fell in the open sewer, that would really suck.
 
http://www.canada.com/national/story.asp?id=09157BB6-B47F-42F3-9890-B47543E7E9EA

Troops raid Kabul site
Canadians launch first Afghanistan offensive after forging links with local police

Francine Dube
National Post; CanWest News Service


Monday, January 19, 2004

Canadian Forces soldiers escort suspects away from a compound in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday. They arrested 16 people after finding a stash of drugs, cash and weapons.

CREDIT: The Canadian Press

ADVERTISEMENT



CAMP JULIEN, AFGHANISTAN - The raid dubbed Tsunami began before dawn Sunday as light-armoured vehicles carrying Canadian soldiers and Kabul city police roared out of the base towards a crumbling neighbourhood believed to house drug traffickers with connections to a terrorist group.

By the time it was over, 16 men were in custody -- a result of the first offensive action by Canadian soldiers since they arrived in Kabul last August. The raid was a significant departure for the Canadians, who have thus far concentrated on forging contacts, training local police and hosting dinners for Afghan National Army officials and tribal leaders.

Sunday those contacts paid off.

"If there‘s a message ... it‘s that there‘s more than just one game in town," said Lt.-Col. Don Denne, the commanding officer at Camp Julien, part of Canada‘s contribution to the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

"We‘re now playing. Does this make us more of a target? Possibly."

Military patrols by Canadians in troubled Kabul neighbourhoods have had a measurable impact on crime, said Denne. The focus has shifted towards rooting out criminal elements.

"We‘re taking the fight to the source," he said.

The raid by 200 soldiers and dozens of Kabul city police had been in the works for two months, after intelligence sources alerted Canadians to suspicious activity at the compound.

It ended Sunday morning, as large bags of money were removed from one of the two residences on the compound, along with an unknown quantity of drugs and two AK-47 assault rifles.

Handcuffed and hooded before being brought outside and lined up against the wall of the compound, one of the younger men began crying, and asked through an interpreter, "What is going on? Am I going to die?"

Another suspect asked when they were going to be set free. He said he and others had airline tickets to go on the hajj -- the pilgrimage to Mecca that ends with the largest celebration in the Muslim faith, Eid ul-Adha. It is believed some of the suspects may be associated with Hezb-i-Islami-Gulbuddin (HiG), founded by one of the most notorious right-wing Islamic leaders of Afghanistan, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The group has been linked to Osama bin Laden. Five of the suspects were brought to Camp Julien later in the day for questioning.

The Canadians and Kabul city police used ladders to scale the three-metre-high mud-brick walls of the compound, located at the end of a dirt road in a neighbourhood of crumbling mud-brick houses. One soldier‘s ladder broke. He grabbed onto the railing of a balcony and pulled himself over, escaping injury. Another soldier was slightly injured when he fell into a sewage-filled hole in the street while walking to the compound in the dark.

"Walking through open sewage is a common occurrence for us," said Sgt. Sean Bechard, one of the other soldiers on the raid. Bechard and his fellow soldiers said they felt confident going in, having trained for years for just such a moment. There were two rehearsals at the camp before the team went in.

"You‘re so focused on your area of responsibility," said Bechard. "We went in and accomplished what we set out to do. There‘s a great sense of accomplishment in that."

One shot was fired, after a metal battering ram failed to force open a locked door. A second shell jammed in the shotgun. Finally a soldier used his shoulder to force open the door.

The raid was somewhat compromised when the soldiers came upon a pack of dogs before they reached the site. The dogs started barking, and continued barking, throughout most of the raid.

"We still had an element of surprise. Not as much surprise as we would have liked," said Maj. John Vass, the officer commanding the Parachute Company.

Vass said he was surprised by the number of people in the concrete buildings, furnished with piles of Afghan rugs and cooking stoves. A total of 49 people -- 17 men, 11 women and 21 children, occupied the two residences and three smaller structures on the compound.

© Copyright 2004 Edmonton Journal
***
Good job.
 
Originally posted by meni0n:
[qb] scm77 is clearly stated Jump Company so I‘m guessing it was paratroopers doing the raid. [/qb]
It did say that but if JTF2 was envoloved they probably wouldn‘t mention it. I was wondering if this would be something JTF2 would do.
 
Sure but why use JTF2 when infantry is just as capable of doing it. Kind of like killing a black fly with a sledge hammer.
 
Sometimes, it simply isn‘t enough to kill a black fly. You have to punish it as an object lesson to its fellows. Not that the black flies care, but it makes you feel better when thousands of the little buggers are clouding around your head.

;-)
 
I think that Canadian Para‘s were more than capable of executing the raid. The CAR used to train for stuff like that all the time...Evidently the Para‘s do as well and it showed in the execution stage when everything was handled so well. ( except for the shotgun?!)

I would say that JTF was probably not required for this OP.

Well done to the Para‘s!
 
More then one guy fell in the "crap" The guy who was injured was lucky, although he did buttstroke himself in the eye with a C8, he was better off then the many other guys that stepped in actual holes full of poo that came directly out from the compound that we surrounded. It wasn‘t cool when the guys were in the washroom trying to wash their boots off after the fact. Lets just say that the door HAD to be kept open. Incidentally, the self buttstroking individual was an officer...
 
Originally posted by Gunner:
[qb] Chapter 7 is peace enforcement (SFOR - Bosnia, ISAF - Afghanistan, UNAMSIL - Sierra Leone, etc). [/qb]
Bosnia SFOR and Afganistan are now NATO Non Article 5 as well.

Regards
 
Franco,

You are partially correct. NATO operations in Bosnia operate under a Chapter 7 mandate from the UN. Moreover, SFOR was always a non-article 5 mission for NATO but it began being denoted as such in December 2002. Article 5 of the North Atlantic Charter states (words to the effect) "an attack against one member nation is an attack against all members of the alliance". As far as I can recall, it has only been involked once in response to the terror attack of 9/11.

Anyway, Afghanistan is a UN mandated Chapter 7 operation being conducted by NATO as a non-article 5 operation. Make sense? There was a considerable flap by the soldiers serving with Op ATHENA in Afghanistan because they were going to be awarded the NATO Non-Article 5 medal which was the same one being awarded now with SFOR.

Anyone know if this actually occurred or if something else happened?
 
They are actually getting Non-Article 5 medals. Heard a rumour they may get a special one(like the SSM with a campain bar). Again only rumours, partially substaciated.

Regards
 
All the times I thought certain officers might need a good buttstroke and this one just went and did it to himself? :eek: :salute:

So do you step in the **** before you buttstroke an officer or after? Now I‘m confused. Things have really changed. If buddy wants to jump in the sewer so badly he should be assinged to DND in Ottawa. Plenty O‘**** there to keep him happy. :cdn: Maybe he just won the ‘scat‘ bar for the campaign medal. :eek:
 
Originally posted by Doug:
[qb] More then one guy fell in the "crap" [/qb]
Say "well done" to the rest of the lads for us. It was a much needed, well executed mission that put Canada on the playing field and let the criminal element know that we aren‘t to be messed with.
Well done!

Slim :cdn:
 
Well, it was a good one. Went pretty slick. A couple of Officers fell in the same hole, but only one was *reportedly* injured! Quite a few guys were cleaning the crap off their boots the next morning... If it was me, the boots would be going into one of those orange HAZMAT bags and I‘d be getting new ones! It only took 6 hours from start to finish, not too bad...
 
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