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Canadian Military Photographer Killed When Chopper Downed in Afghanistan

Posted on: Thursday, 31 May 2007, 18:00 CDT

By STEPHANIE LEVITZ

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Master Cpl. Darrell Jason Priede died in a combat zone but it was his work as a military photographer documenting reconstruction that other soldiers were remembering Thursday after he was confirmed as the 56th Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan.

Priede, 30, based at CFB Gagetown, N.B., died when a U.S. Chinook helicopter he was riding in went down in southern Afghanistan's volatile Helmand province late Wednesday night. He was photographing coalition forces trying to wrest control of a strategic valley from insurgents to pave the way for reconstruction.

Five Americans and a Briton on board were also killed when the helicopter was apparently shot down after dropping off U.S. troops. The Taliban has claimed responsibility.

Initial reports suggested the helicopter was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade, said a U.S. official who insisted on anonymity. Hostile fire was also mentioned by Maj. John Thomas, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF.

"It was a hostile area, where the helicopter went down," Thomas said. "Initial indications are that enemy fire may have brought down the helicopter."

Thomas said the Chinook had just dropped off a full load of U.S. troops from the 82nd Airborne before it went down. He said between 30 and 40 troops would likely have been on board.

"There will be a full investigation," Thomas said.

Lt.-Col. David Accetta, the top U.S. military spokesman at Bagram Air Base outside Kabul, said enemy fire was only one of several possibilities.

"We will investigate thoroughly," he said. "There's no solid evidence we can point to that suggests it was shot down."

Canadian military officials, too, said only that the incident is under investigation.

A National Defence news release said Priede "was killed when the helicopter in which he was a passenger went down at approximately 9 p.m." near the town of Kajaki, about 95 kilometres northwest of Kandahar city.

Priede was born in Burlington, Ont. and grew up around Grand Forks, B.C.

Lt. (Navy) Desmond James worked closely with Priede while serving with the Canadian-led Provincial Reconstruction Team - or PRT - just outside Kandahar city.

Flipping through a sheaf of photos that Priede took, James said Priede had learned a lot in the six weeks he'd been in the country, especially during the week he spent with the PRT.

James remembered how the photographer always captured a unique view of soldiers on the ground. Priede's work was put on display at the PRT late Thursday.

"He loved what he was doing, he was a great guy," James said, his eyes welling with tears.

"He had a greater understanding of how important it is to continue doing what we're doing and really appreciated the chance to work down here."

Priede was doing his job as photographer for the Regional Command South, which oversees multinational efforts in each of the five southern Afghan provinces.

He was killed during Operation Lastay Kulang, part of the ISAF offensive against the Taliban in Helmand province.

The area has been a hotbed of military activity for months, as coalition forces tried to clear the way for the Kajaki dam reconstruction project designed to provide electricity for both Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

Priede is the second Canadian soldier to die in less than a week. Master Cpl. Matthew McCully was killed last Friday when he stepped on an explosive device.

Since 2002, 56 Canadian soldiers and one Canadian diplomat have died in Afghanistan.

Canadian Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant acknowledged the Taliban are putting up determined resistance to development in the south, but he remained confident it's a battle that the international forces would win.

"We're seeing it unfold much as we thought it would: in small groups they will attack ISAF, unsuccessfully on the bigger front," Grant told reporters at Kandahar Airfield.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, claimed in a phone call to The Associated Press that insurgents brought down the helicopter. Ahmadi did not offer any proof, but he specified the helicopter crashed in the Kajaki district hours before NATO reported it.

NATO troops secured the wreckage on Thursday after encountering enemy fighters earlier on as they approached the site. They called in an air strike "to eliminate the enemy threat," NATO said.

The CH-47 Chinook, a heavy transport helicopter with two rotors, can carry around 40 soldiers plus a small crew.

Helicopter crashes in Afghanistan have been relatively rare.

A Chinook crashed in February in the southern province of Zabul, killing eight U.S. personnel. Officials ruled out enemy fire as the cause.

In May 2006, another Chinook crashed attempting a nighttime landing on a small mountaintop in eastern Kunar province, killing 10 U.S. soldiers.

In 2005, a U.S. helicopter crashed in Kunar, after apparently being hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, killing 16 Americans.

Source: Canadian Press

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