tbk107
12-25-2006, 12:38 PM
These are some photos from an opening day patrol where Canadian Private Frederic Couture stepped on a landmine. There was a journalist, Gethin Chamberlain, from The Sunday Telegraph embedded with them and these are some of the photos he took. Here is a cross link to the post (http://militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=100814) with the story and link to the video.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3152/g1eq8.th.jpg (http://img201.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g1eq8.jpg)
Last week Nato and Afghan forces in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan launched a new offensive, Operation Falcon's Summit, aimed at driving the resurgent Taliban from the area. Here, soldiers rest up against a wall during a push deep into territory in the Pashmul area.
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/9186/g2rx9.th.jpg (http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g2rx9.jpg)
A Canadian soldier from a unit working with Afghan troops takes up position in the shattered ruins of a grape drying building. Taliban fighters had ambushed the same unit on their previous sortie into the area.
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/9938/g3ph6.th.jpg (http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g3ph6.jpg)
Afghan soldiers working with the Canadians out of a remote strongpoint in the Pashmul area prepare for an operation to flush out the Taliban. But Nato commanders also hoped that reconstruction projects would help win over people living in the area and turn them against the Taliban.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/2120/g4em5.th.jpg (http://img185.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g4em5.jpg)
On the first day of Falcon's Summit, a joint Afghan and Canadian unit was instructed to enter three villages in the Pashmul area to establish what could be done to help. The soldiers included Private Frederic Couture, front right. A few minutes later, he stepped on a landmine which blew off his left foot.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/6126/g5rs6.th.jpg (http://img143.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g5rs6.jpg)
Medic Frederick Morrissette and Captain John Benson tend to Private Frederic Couture at the scene of the explosion on a narrow path alongside a deep wadi. “I’m 21 years old and I’ve lost my foot”, Couture told them. “What am I going to do now?”
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/3834/g6ok1.th.jpg (http://img178.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g6ok1.jpg)
A colleague carries Private Couture's blood-spattered flak jacket.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/7395/g7qb9.th.jpg (http://img185.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g7qb9.jpg)
The soldiers carry Private Couture on a tarpaulin back through the wadi below the path in the hope of avoiding any more mines.
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/7586/g8sd3.th.jpg (http://img297.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g8sd3.jpg)
The injured soldier was transferred to a stretcher and carried carefully back to an armoured ambulance.
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/3140/g9dz6.th.jpg (http://img297.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g9dz6.jpg)
Colleagues load landmine victim Private Frederic Couture into the armoured ambulance.
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/9718/g10wv9.th.jpg (http://img178.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g10wv9.jpg)
The day before the attack coalition troops met local elders at a shura, a meeting to decide how aid should be distributed to the villages in the area.
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/5486/g11td1.th.jpg (http://img178.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g11td1.jpg)
About 30 elders, mainly from Pashmul’s mosques, crammed into a small room in a corner of a coalition base north of Masum Gar for the meeting, leaving their shoes outside the door.
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/9299/g14el2.th.jpg (http://img163.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g14el2.jpg)
The landmine that maimed Private Frederic Couture - pictured here, far right, with his colleagues an hour before the patrol set off - demonstrated the difficulty of guaranteeing security in the Pashmul area. Private Couture was 21. A fitness fanatic, he had been in the army three years. He was evacuated to hospital in Germany. His colleagues said they feared the loss of his foot meant the end of his military career.
All photographs by Gethin Chamberlain.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3152/g1eq8.th.jpg (http://img201.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g1eq8.jpg)
Last week Nato and Afghan forces in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan launched a new offensive, Operation Falcon's Summit, aimed at driving the resurgent Taliban from the area. Here, soldiers rest up against a wall during a push deep into territory in the Pashmul area.
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/9186/g2rx9.th.jpg (http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g2rx9.jpg)
A Canadian soldier from a unit working with Afghan troops takes up position in the shattered ruins of a grape drying building. Taliban fighters had ambushed the same unit on their previous sortie into the area.
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/9938/g3ph6.th.jpg (http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g3ph6.jpg)
Afghan soldiers working with the Canadians out of a remote strongpoint in the Pashmul area prepare for an operation to flush out the Taliban. But Nato commanders also hoped that reconstruction projects would help win over people living in the area and turn them against the Taliban.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/2120/g4em5.th.jpg (http://img185.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g4em5.jpg)
On the first day of Falcon's Summit, a joint Afghan and Canadian unit was instructed to enter three villages in the Pashmul area to establish what could be done to help. The soldiers included Private Frederic Couture, front right. A few minutes later, he stepped on a landmine which blew off his left foot.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/6126/g5rs6.th.jpg (http://img143.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g5rs6.jpg)
Medic Frederick Morrissette and Captain John Benson tend to Private Frederic Couture at the scene of the explosion on a narrow path alongside a deep wadi. “I’m 21 years old and I’ve lost my foot”, Couture told them. “What am I going to do now?”
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/3834/g6ok1.th.jpg (http://img178.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g6ok1.jpg)
A colleague carries Private Couture's blood-spattered flak jacket.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/7395/g7qb9.th.jpg (http://img185.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g7qb9.jpg)
The soldiers carry Private Couture on a tarpaulin back through the wadi below the path in the hope of avoiding any more mines.
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/7586/g8sd3.th.jpg (http://img297.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g8sd3.jpg)
The injured soldier was transferred to a stretcher and carried carefully back to an armoured ambulance.
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/3140/g9dz6.th.jpg (http://img297.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g9dz6.jpg)
Colleagues load landmine victim Private Frederic Couture into the armoured ambulance.
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/9718/g10wv9.th.jpg (http://img178.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g10wv9.jpg)
The day before the attack coalition troops met local elders at a shura, a meeting to decide how aid should be distributed to the villages in the area.
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/5486/g11td1.th.jpg (http://img178.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g11td1.jpg)
About 30 elders, mainly from Pashmul’s mosques, crammed into a small room in a corner of a coalition base north of Masum Gar for the meeting, leaving their shoes outside the door.
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/9299/g14el2.th.jpg (http://img163.imageshack.us/my.php?image=g14el2.jpg)
The landmine that maimed Private Frederic Couture - pictured here, far right, with his colleagues an hour before the patrol set off - demonstrated the difficulty of guaranteeing security in the Pashmul area. Private Couture was 21. A fitness fanatic, he had been in the army three years. He was evacuated to hospital in Germany. His colleagues said they feared the loss of his foot meant the end of his military career.
All photographs by Gethin Chamberlain.