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Ambush in Afghanistan
Mar. 5, 2006. 07:43 AM
MITCH POTTER
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU
A Canadian civil affairs officer came in peace yesterday to a destitute Afghan village, removing his helmet and laying his weapon on the ground. He sat cross-legged with tribal elders and produced a notepad, into which he began to faithfully record the people's needs.
From behind, a young man stepped forward suddenly from among the crowd of villagers and raised an axe above his head. With a single cry of "Allahu Akbar," he swung the blade into the top of the Canadian officer's head.
Lieut. Trevor Greene, a Vancouver resident serving in the Canadian Forces' Civil-Military Co-operation (CIMIC) unit was in critical condition last night, en route to Germany, where a team of neurologists waited to assess the extent of brain damage. His vital signs were said to be satisfactory and he was breathing without assistance.
Greene's unidentified assailant, estimated to be less than 20 years old, was dead within seconds of the attack. Three Canadian soldiers accompanying Greene opened fire, pumping 14 bullets into the attacker, who stood over his victim, making no effort to escape.
The attack came as a prelude to a prolonged firefight, as the Canadian entourage and a contingent of Afghan National Army soldiers were ambushed by insurgents, taking small-arms fire from both flanks of the meeting site on a riverbank at the remote village in the rugged hills northeast of Kandahar.
Reinforcements rushed in from a nearby Canadian Forces Forward Operating Base. As two British Harrier jets circled overhead, the Canadian and Afghan soldiers fought off the attack. A U.S. Apache helicopter gunship arrived with a medical evacuation helicopter, which airlifted Greene to Kandahar Airfield.
Canadian soldiers believe they injured one of the insurgents in the battle. The wounded man fled into the surrounding mountains along with an unknown number of attackers.
