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No Rest for Travel-Weary Soldiers Who'Ll Replace Edmonton Troops in Kandahar

Posted on: Wednesday, 2 August 2006, 09:00 CDT

By TERRY PEDWELL

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - The first replacement troops for Canadian soldiers returning home from Afghanistan were put to the test Wednesday, getting guns ready for the field and getting used to the heat.

Two planeloads of soldiers, mainly from Manitoba and Ontario, touched down at Kandahar Air Field before dawn following an exhausting 36 hour journey from Canada.

Within hours of their arrival, the new group was in full gear, gathering ammunition and testing weapons in the early morning heat.

Some red-faced soldiers appeared overwhelmed by the temperatures, which had reached 45 C by breakfast.

"Didn't know what I was getting into," Cpl. Laura Mills of Petawawa, Ont. said at first glance of the base that she will call home for the next six months.

"So far, so good," she said breathlessly.

"It's warm, it's really warm, but we're doing good. We have lots of water."

Most of the soldiers expressed confidence that their training over the past six months would help them overcome the heat and lurking danger of southern Afghanistan, where an estimated 800 people have been killed in fighting, suicide attacks or other deliberate explosions in the past three months.

They've all heard the stories, said Mast.-Cpl. Michael Lennox, from Shilo, Man.

"I'm not really expecting anything," Lennox said as his fellow soldiers used their C16 rifles to spit bullets at a target range.

"From what (others) have said, I just go with the flow," he added.

"You can take word of mouth, but until you actually experience it, you don't know."

Roughly 2,000 soldiers, mainly from CFB Petawawa, near Ottawa, will replace an almost equal number who will be returning to Canada over the next four weeks.

The soldiers who are going home know all too well the dangers they faced in and around Kandahar - 11 have died since arriving in southern Afghanistan in early February.

A funeral was held in Edmonton Tuesday for Cpl. Francisco Gomez, who was killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan on July 22.

Gomez, 44, was stationed with Edmonton's Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.

The newest group of soldiers entering Afghanistan also includes members of the PPCLI.

Jason Warren of the Black Watch, the Royal Highland Regiment of Canada based in Montreal, also died in the suicide attack and eight other soldiers were injured, including two based at Canadian Forces Base Shilo and six from Edmonton.

Back in Afghanistan, fighting continued as 18 Taliban militants and one policeman were reported killed in clashes in the south.

The fighting took place late Tuesday near the Helmand province town of Garmser, where Afghan and coalition forces have been hunting insurgents following last month's brief takeover of the town by the Taliban.

Afghan forces, backed by coalition aircraft, attacked a Taliban position in the village of Habibullah, near Garmser, said local police chief Ghulam Rasool.

Police found the bodies of 18 insurgents, believed to have been killed in coalition air strikes.

Four Taliban were wounded, but were recovered by their comrades before retreating away from the Afghan government forces, sources told The Canadian Press.

An Afghan policeman was also killed during the battle, Rasool said.

In a similar raid Sunday, Afghan forces killed 23 insurgents in attacks on two Taliban hideous near Garmser.

On Tuesday, just as coalition forces in southern Afghanistan were handed over to NATO control, insurgents killed three British soldiers in an ambush in Helmand province, where Canadian forces had been battling for weeks.

A fourth soldier was seriously wounded.

Source: Canadian Press

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