Channel 4 News cameraman Stuart Webb blogs from southern Afghanistan where he is currently embedded with the US Army.
You know that game at the fair where you try to shoot down ducks with an air rifle to get a prize? Well just lately I’ve been feeling a bit like one of those ducks.
I’ve been going on patrols with Americas’ 82nd Airborne in the green zone around Kandahar. But this isn’t like the Green Zone in Baghdad; the heavily fortified area where the Americans operated in relative security. No, the green zones in Afghanistan are the most dangerous places to be.
They refer to the green strips of cultivated land that run alongside the rives in this largely arid and desert like country. The green zones are where the majority of the population live, and where the majority of the fighting takes place, because the trees and crops that grow here provide perfect ambush country for the Taliban. Among the soldiers in Afghanistan the green zone is a by-word for war, for fear, for ambushes and fighting.
Each time you venture into the green zone you are only too aware that you could be attacked at any moment, or blown up by and IED – the improvised explosive devices or homemade bombs so favoured by the insurgents and which have become a hallmark of this conflict. In the green zone you feel like one of those fair ground ducks at the best of times, but of late it’s been even more intense.
The platoon I was accompanying had been attacked on their patrols for the last ten days in a row.
To turn the tables on the insurgents’ constant ambushes, the soldiers decided to try and set an ambush of their own. This involved sending out snipers and scouts in the dead of night to take up positions and wait silently and hidden. The downside was a patrol needed to go out as a decoy with the express purpose of trying to be ambushed by the Taliban, so the hidden snipers could return fire.
For two days I was in the ‘bait’ part of the patrol. A walking target simply there to draw fire. Although the stark truth for the soldiers here is that they are a target all the time, no matter what the nature of the patrol, they are always bait.
And then there’s the IEDs. A soldier had been blown to bits by an IED when I arrived; I heard the explosion; I heard the sound of him being killed. The Taliban are laying IEDs all over the place, not just in the ground but also in the many mud walls that line all the fields and tracks here. They are even hanging them from the trees.
The IEDs are being set off by pressure plates in the ground; by trip wires hidden in the dense vegetation; and by command wires so an insurgent hidden close by can actually see you as he kills you – this is how the soldier was killed on our first day.
Having to walk in an area with so many IEDs and with such a high threat of being ambushed is a unique experience. You try not to think about it, because doing so brings on a sickening spiral of dread and fear. But it is a fine line. You need to be aware of the threats so you can save yourself. You need to be constantly looking for a trip wire; for the disturbance in the ground that could be the sign for a hidden IED.
You try not to think that every wall could be a bomb or second guess every step you take. You think odd things too. I hoped that when the bullets started flying that I would not be hit by the first few, so I would at least have a chance to hit the ground and roll into a ditch. As much as I tried not too I kept thinking every now and then that I really didn’t want my legs to be blown off, because I like cycling so much.
I also would like to have children one day. I hoped that I would not get an injury that would mean I wouldn’t be unable to. The Hollywood movies and video games that glorify war and death don’t show that. They don’t show that the soldiers who often have their legs blown off also loose their private parts too. No; the reality is not very glamorous.
It’s not a video game out here. There’s no reset button. If you die out here you’re dead. The novelty and excitement for me, and nearly all the soldiers I’ve ever spoken to about being in a firefight, wears off as soon as the first bullets are fired. When you realise the bullets are real and that any one of them could kill you. You instantly realise what is at stake: your life. You realise too what else is at stake: everything that is special in your life. Your friends, your family, everything that is dear to you.
We walked on. Even the most hardened and macho soldier was anxious. We walked in a nervous surreal silence, like fair ground ducks just waiting to get hit. Sgt Best who was in charge of the patrols would point out the notable scenery.
We walked past a crater where one of his soldiers had had is foot blown off by an IED; he pointed out the spot where an Afghan soldier with him was shot in the head; he pointed out the compound where he almost always gets shot at from; and pointed out all the other favourite ambush spots for the Taliban.
But despite Sgt Best’s stirring efforts to get us ambushed over two days and on three separate ‘bait’ patrols, the Taliban didn’t attack. Given their track record in this area it seemed inexplicable. But my gut and experience of many trips to combat areas in Afghanistan told me there may well be a simple explanation. The Taliban have eyes everywhere. No matter how late the snipers set off or how well they thought they were hidden the insurgents may well have seen them and decided not to attack.
Sgt Best could not disguise his huge disappointment at not getting into a firefight as he walked back to base with one of his snipers: “Why aren’t the Taliban coming out to play? It’s starting to piss me off.”
But despite his bravado he was also a realist. Sgt Best has been in countless firefights; he’s seen friends shot; seen friends blown up in front of him; he’s lost eight close friends during his various deployments to Afghanistan.
A few days ago he was one of the men sent out to collect the body parts of the soldier who had been blown up by the IED. He was a fellow sergeant. He was also another friend. No, Sgt Best knows more than most you have to be careful what you wish for in Afghanistan.