EvanL
05-02-2004, 11:23 PM
By Stephen Thorne
Canadian Press
May 2, 2004
WEST OF KABUL
Guided by U.S. Special Forces, Canadian engineers and infantrymen ventured far outside their operations area Sunday, exploring caves filled with ordnance and destroying more than 300 lethal projectiles.
The Americans discovered the cache a month ago distributed among 30 caves deep in mountains west of Kabul, 27 kilometres beyond the zone traditionally patrolled by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
Most of the mortars, rockets and rocket-propelled grenades were concentrated in three of the larger caves, and monitoring by the U.S. troops revealed some were disappearing almost daily.
"We think that there is somebody who knows it's here," said the Canadian platoon commander, Lieut. Philip Grandia, 24, of Kamloops, B.C. "Every time (the Americans) would come back they'd find fewer and fewer munitions.
"We want to get it done right away just in case somebody's taking it out."
The operation was one of two occurring over the weekend in which the Canadians -- at 2,300 troops, ISAF's largest contingent -- ventured well outside the NATO boundary.
A Canadian-led multinational mechanized force returned Sunday from a long-range reconnaissance patrol, during which it visited 12 communities far beyond NATO lines northeast of Kabul since Friday.
NATO plans to expand into so-called provincial reconstruction teams, or small stabilizing forces, in cities around Afghanistan. But the weekend's activities were the first Kabul-centred operations that ventured so far outside the capital.
Col. Alain Tremblay, commander of the Canadian contingent in Afghanistan, said Kabul is relatively stable after 2{ years and it was inevitable that ISAF would start "pushing the envelope and expanding our influence."
"We're adapting to the changing behaviour of the belligerents," he said. "We need to ... project power if we want to expand outside Kabul city per se and satisfy the mandate of ISAF.
"You will see those operations more and more. I suspect it will become the default type of operation, certainly for the next contingent coming to replace us in August."
In the mountains, the U.S. Special Forces troops said the cache likely belonged to the area's former warlord, who has been held at the U.S. base in Bagram since he was captured more than a month ago.
One of the Americans said the man was a former Taliban member, and a local Afghan said he was now a loyalist of terrorist Hekmatyar Gulbuddin, the man believed responsible for fatal attacks on Canadian and other ISAF forces.
The Americans said they had been all through extensive cave complexes in the area that took them back inside the mountains. They said they turned around and came out again before they ever reached the end.
"They (terrorists) are not doing the planning in Kabul," said one of the American SF, who did not want to be identified. "They're doing the planning in places like this. The onus is on us to come out here and get 'em."
Members of 5 Combat Engineer Regiment out of Valcartier, Que., prepared more than 120 half-kilogram sticks of C-4 explosive in a daisy chain linked by detonator cord and fuses, then distributed it over stacks of munitions both inside and outside the first of the three main caves. The L-shaped cave is about 15 metres deep and less than two metres high.
Sgt. Steve Bolduc, an engineer from Gaspe, Que., has found and destroyed more than 500 munitions since arriving in Kabul almost three months ago. He said Sunday's find was the biggest so far.
"It's a good feeling," said Bolduc. "It's the first time two sections of (ordnance disposal) have done that. That's a great feeling to see what's going to happen with a lot of explosives like that."
The explosion did not collapse the cave, however. And secondary explosions continued for almost an hour after the initial blast.
For a while, the Canadians thought they were under mortar attack. Dutch Apache attack helicopters were put on standby before the engineers realized ordnance was still exploding inside the cave.
The Canadians suggested they might not come back for days, but the Americans said the rest of the ordnance will be gone if they don't get the job done soon.
Canadian Press
May 2, 2004
WEST OF KABUL
Guided by U.S. Special Forces, Canadian engineers and infantrymen ventured far outside their operations area Sunday, exploring caves filled with ordnance and destroying more than 300 lethal projectiles.
The Americans discovered the cache a month ago distributed among 30 caves deep in mountains west of Kabul, 27 kilometres beyond the zone traditionally patrolled by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
Most of the mortars, rockets and rocket-propelled grenades were concentrated in three of the larger caves, and monitoring by the U.S. troops revealed some were disappearing almost daily.
"We think that there is somebody who knows it's here," said the Canadian platoon commander, Lieut. Philip Grandia, 24, of Kamloops, B.C. "Every time (the Americans) would come back they'd find fewer and fewer munitions.
"We want to get it done right away just in case somebody's taking it out."
The operation was one of two occurring over the weekend in which the Canadians -- at 2,300 troops, ISAF's largest contingent -- ventured well outside the NATO boundary.
A Canadian-led multinational mechanized force returned Sunday from a long-range reconnaissance patrol, during which it visited 12 communities far beyond NATO lines northeast of Kabul since Friday.
NATO plans to expand into so-called provincial reconstruction teams, or small stabilizing forces, in cities around Afghanistan. But the weekend's activities were the first Kabul-centred operations that ventured so far outside the capital.
Col. Alain Tremblay, commander of the Canadian contingent in Afghanistan, said Kabul is relatively stable after 2{ years and it was inevitable that ISAF would start "pushing the envelope and expanding our influence."
"We're adapting to the changing behaviour of the belligerents," he said. "We need to ... project power if we want to expand outside Kabul city per se and satisfy the mandate of ISAF.
"You will see those operations more and more. I suspect it will become the default type of operation, certainly for the next contingent coming to replace us in August."
In the mountains, the U.S. Special Forces troops said the cache likely belonged to the area's former warlord, who has been held at the U.S. base in Bagram since he was captured more than a month ago.
One of the Americans said the man was a former Taliban member, and a local Afghan said he was now a loyalist of terrorist Hekmatyar Gulbuddin, the man believed responsible for fatal attacks on Canadian and other ISAF forces.
The Americans said they had been all through extensive cave complexes in the area that took them back inside the mountains. They said they turned around and came out again before they ever reached the end.
"They (terrorists) are not doing the planning in Kabul," said one of the American SF, who did not want to be identified. "They're doing the planning in places like this. The onus is on us to come out here and get 'em."
Members of 5 Combat Engineer Regiment out of Valcartier, Que., prepared more than 120 half-kilogram sticks of C-4 explosive in a daisy chain linked by detonator cord and fuses, then distributed it over stacks of munitions both inside and outside the first of the three main caves. The L-shaped cave is about 15 metres deep and less than two metres high.
Sgt. Steve Bolduc, an engineer from Gaspe, Que., has found and destroyed more than 500 munitions since arriving in Kabul almost three months ago. He said Sunday's find was the biggest so far.
"It's a good feeling," said Bolduc. "It's the first time two sections of (ordnance disposal) have done that. That's a great feeling to see what's going to happen with a lot of explosives like that."
The explosion did not collapse the cave, however. And secondary explosions continued for almost an hour after the initial blast.
For a while, the Canadians thought they were under mortar attack. Dutch Apache attack helicopters were put on standby before the engineers realized ordnance was still exploding inside the cave.
The Canadians suggested they might not come back for days, but the Americans said the rest of the ordnance will be gone if they don't get the job done soon.