smilingassassin

I wonder how long it will take Jack Layton to hop on this one and call for a debate (for the umteenth time).......

http://sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/A...soldier_060328

Cdn soldier killed in firefight outside Kandahar
CTV.ca News Staff

A Canadian soldier serving in Afghanistan was killed and three others were wounded in a firefight with Taliban insurgents in a remote area outside of Kandahar, military officials say.

An American soldier was also killed in the action, which took place Tuesday night in Helmand Province, about 110 kilometres north of Kandahar. An undetermined number of Afghan National Army soldiers were also killed.

The Canadian soldier is identified as Pte. Robert Costall, of the 1st Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton.

His hometown is Thunder Bay. Costall is survived by his wife Chrissy and son Colin, who is one year old. Chrissy and Colin live in Namao, which is just north of Edmonton.

The names of the wounded were not released.

Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, commander of Task Force Afghanistan, said the wounded soldiers were evacuated to the multi-national hospital at Kandahar airfield.

He said they suffered "non life-threatening injuries" and described their condition as "stable."

Fraser said Taliban forces attacked coalition troops, who had been sent to the area after the recent death of eight Afghan army soldiers.

He said Costall died in the firefight defending his fellow troops.

"And we will not forget his sacrifice. Our thoughts are with his family today, and with the families of the injured."

Fraser refused to provide further details of the battle because the operation by coalition forces in the area is ongoing. However, the general area is known to be a hotbed of both insurgency and drug trafficking.

The U.S. military said in a statement: "Coalition forces employed a variety of combined arms to include close air support and are believed to have killed at least a dozen enemy insurgents."

Fraser would only say a "significant" number of Taliban died.

The news comes a day after a rocket attack on the base where Canadian troops are located. No one was hurt in that attack. But there were also several roadside bombings in and around Kandahar in recent days that left six civilians dead.

CTV's Ellen Pinchuk, reporting Wednesday morning from Kandahar, said there have long been rumours about stepped-up attacks by the Taliban.

"Their leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, has been saying that there would be a pre-offensive by the Taliban. Military representatives say they believe that's a myth, but they do recognize that the Taliban tend to string together types of attacks, where you'll see three, four, or five in a row, followed by a period of calm."

There are about 2,200 Canadian soldiers currently serving in Afghanistan.

The troops are committed in the region until early next year, although Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier has warned the international community may ask for continued support until a NATO-led mission ends in 2011.

Costall is the 12th Canadian to die in Afghanistan since 2002 -- 11 soldiers and one Canadian diplomat, Glyn Berry.

Four Canadians died in 2002 when they were mistakenly bombed by a U.S. fighter jet while on a training mission. Four were killed in suicide attacks or roadside bombs, while three died in two separate vehicle accidents.

The violence in the area has renewed calls for an open debate in Parliament about whether Canada should cut its mission in Afghanistan short.

NDP leader Jack Layton has been the most vocal about having an open debate, demanding an emergency debate be held on the issue as early as April 5.

However, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said repeatedly the mission is not open to debate.

Harper has not specified the length of time that Canadian soldiers will remain in the region. Military planners have suggested that Canada could have a presence in the country for the next decade.

A recent survey suggested 52 per cent of Canadians support the mission in Afghanistan.

With a report from CTV's Ellen Pinchuk and files from The Canadian Press

lemontree

May God bless the soldier's soul, and grant his family the strength to bear his loss.

__________________

Cheers!...on the rocks!!

Officer of Engineers

Captain,

I am forwarding your words to the Regimental HQ.

I have to say that I've signed too many Books in the past 4 years. Way too many.

__________________
Chimo

lemontree

Sir,
I wish it was congratulations and not condolances going to the unit and his family.

Officer of Engineers

The words are appreciated, Captain, and more than that, they help, Captain. Your words help.

smilingassassin

Chimo...how can I send my own reguards?

Blademaster

Sir!

Please convey the condolences from a grateful citizen who can live in today's society without fear of persecution.

Officer of Engineers

Will do.

Officer of Engineers

Fierce battle shocked troops
Canadians helped save Afghan troops under fire; Firefight that killed 22-year-old the biggest for our military in 32 years; Coalition soldiers not used to intense, large-scale attacks from Taliban

Richard Foot in Kandahar, Afghanistan
The Ottawa Citizen

Thursday, March 30, 2006

CREDIT: Cpl. Robin Mugridge
Troops take part in a ceremony at the airfield for Pte. Robert Costall. He died 'defending his fellow soldiers,' said the commander of coalition forces in southern Afghanistan.

At 10 p.m. Tuesday, on a cool, cloudless night in Afghanistan, Pte. Robert Costall and 30 fellow soldiers on Canada's quick reaction force were scrambled into action and whisked by helicopter from Kandahar Airfield to the lawless wastes of Sangin district, a difficult corner of a dangerous land.

Five hours later, Pte. Costall was dead, and his mates were in the midst of the most serious and deadly battle faced by Canadian soldiers in 32 years.

Not since the death of two Canadian "peacekeepers" in 1974 -- killed defending Nicosia airport in Cyprus -- has a Canadian soldier been killed in action during a firefight with enemy troops. "Pte. Robert Costall died defending his fellow soldiers," Canadian Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, commander of all coalition forces in southern Afghanistan, said yesterday. "We will not forget his sacrifice."

An American soldier and an unspecified number of Afghan troops also died -- as did a reported 33 Taliban fighters

British Col. Chris Vernon, chief of staff to Brig.-Gen. Fraser, admitted that the scale and intensity of the Taliban attack took coalition army commanders by surprise. "The size and tenacity may have slightly exceeded our estimates," he said.

"The Taliban generally operate in small groups of eight to 10, and they will generally avoid confrontation against larger numbers," he said. "Their coherence as a fighting unit in western military terms is not great. Their co-ordination measures are not great ... but the only thing I will say is, they are brave.

"However, there is always a fine line between bravery and stupidity."

The Battle of Sangin began Tuesday afternoon in Helmand province in south-central Afghanistan, outside the normal operating area for Canadian soldiers based in the neighbouring province of Kandahar.

An Afghan National Army convoy -- on a resupply mission to a forward operating base in Sangin district, a remote area in the northern reaches of the Helmand desert -- was ambushed by Taliban insurgents.

The Taliban first hit the convoy with small arms fire and then with a remotely detonated roadside bomb.

Eight Afghan soldiers died in the ambush, according to military officials. While the Taliban were temporarily driven off, the disabled convoy became stranded on a lonely road eight kilometres from the forward base.

The forward base itself is a new Afghan army installation -- a collection of tents and dug-in defensive positions surrounded by razor wire, manned by Afghan soldiers and a handful of American troops. It sits in the heart of a major poppy-growing area for the opium trade that helps fuel the Afghan insurgency.

The base is meant to give the Afghan army and its coalition allies a military presence in the area, in the hope of bringing law and order to the district.

"Sangin is a critical node in Helmand province," said British Col. Chris Vernon, chief of staff to Brig.-Gen. Fraser.

"Sangin is part of the Helmand River valley in which a lot of the roads converge and then move northward and is, therefore, a clear line of communication for the Taliban," said Col. Vernon, who gave reporters the first substantial account of the battle.

On Tuesday night, as troops from the Sangin forward base struggled to get help to the stranded convoy, the base itself came under attack from Taliban forces around its perimeter.

Decisions were made in Kandahar to send air support and British Harrier fighter-bombers were launched, as well as American Apache attack helicopters and B52 heavy bombers.

By 10 p.m., Brig.-Gen. Fraser also ordered his quick reaction force to support the Afghan and American soldiers under attack at the forward base.

A Canadian combat platoon, on special duty this month for rapid deployment anywhere in southern Afghanistan, boarded helicopters for the hour-long flight to Sangin.

The Canadians landed in a tight situation; the Sangin base was already under siege, but worse was still to come.

At around 2 a.m., the Taliban launched their main assault on the base, attacking with what Col. Vernon called a "significant" force, "during which a pretty fierce firefight ensued."

Details of the firefight itself remain unclear. Army officials have not yet explained how Pte. Costall and his American and Afghan counterparts were killed, or how three other Canadians were wounded before being flown by helicopter to Kandahar.

Yet it appears the coalition troops, firing rifles, machine-guns and mortars from inside the forward base, fought off a sustained assault.

Col. Vernon suggested that many of the Taliban casualties likely came from the air: from rockets fired by helicopters and Harrier jets, and from bombs dropped by B52 bombers.

Afghan radio reporter Humayon Shaieb, a correspondent for Voice of America, told Col. Vernon he had received reports yesterday that a number of civilians had been killed, and homes destroyed, when bombs fell on their town during the battle.

"I find that very unlikely," said Col. Vernon. "I've seen aerial photographs of the forward operating base. It's in the middle of nowhere and the Taliban attack came over open ground.

"There is not a lot of Afghan habitation in that area at all. So I cannot see in any way how any degree of civilian damage could have been done."

Col. Vernon said after the main attack was repulsed, coalition air forces destroyed a compound where insurgents were believed to have taken refuge.

Yet Col. Vernon also said the situation remained "a little bit unclear" yesterday, as coalition forces assessed the fallout of the battle, from the ground and from the air.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2006

Officer of Engineers

Using the traditional formula of 3 wounded to 1 killed, this would mean the Taliban attack was at least 200 strong.

Amled

Please pass onward the deepest condolences from a grateful expatriate.
Apropos, the Danish contingent also lost a man this week, victim of a roadside bomb.

__________________
When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. - Anais Nin

Officer of Engineers

Amled,

Will do. If you wish, please Private Message me with your real name and I will sign your name to the regt's book.

I will make it a point this week to visit the Danish Embassy.

Way too many books. Way too many.

Jay

Colonel,
Where are the books held ?? Could we civilians also do the same?

FYI...They have a naval reserve near where I live.

Also, I wasnt sure, have you heard about this...

http://saltw-atercity.bc.ca/ccmuseum.htm

Just remove the hypen in saltw-ater.

__________________
A grain of wheat eclipsed the sun of Adam !!

Jay

And If I cannot please pass on my condolences to the brave man's family

Confed999

My prayers for him, his family and friends...

I always wish there was more I could say. People like this soldier, Robert Costall, deserve so much of our gratitude, but I always find myself at a loss for words stronger than "thank you"...

__________________
No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry