'There's been an incident,' Canadian troops told
Francine Dube
CanWest News Service
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
CAMP JULIEN, Afghanistan - It was a beautiful morning in Kabul, cold, but bathed in sunshine. No one at
Camp Julien seemed to hear the bomb when it went off at 8:25 a.m., on a busy road less than a kilometre
from the camp.
The daily morning operations meeting for the Royal Canadian Regiment, 3rd Battalion, was in full swing.
Chris Alexander, the Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan, was present as a guest. Suddenly, a duty officer
from the tactical operations centre (TOC) interrupted the meeting.
"There's been an incident," he told the officers. "All the key reps need to come to the TOC."
The TOC is the command post for the 3RCR battalion. It's where crisis response is planned and monitored.
Information is exchanged in periodic Battle Upbriefs - BUBs.
9:30 a.m. The mood is tense inside the TOC. The battalion's commanding officer, Lt.-Col. Don Denne, has
been driven to the scene in an armoured vehicle. Maj. Jamie Morse, deputy commanding officer, is in
charge. Operations Officer Maj. Greg Smith chairs the BUBs, held between representatives from all the key
units in the battalion group and liaisons from other units, including medical staff.
The officers are told that a suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his chest attacked Canadian soldiers,
resulting in casualties. The brigade is being spooled up for action. Forensics experts and military police are
headed towards the site. Intelligence officers have arrived and photographs are being taken to assist in the
investigation.
Medics and ambulances have been out to the site and back. A German helicopter is being brought in, in
case one of the injured has to be brought from Camp Julien to a more specialized medical facility, like the
German centre at Camp Warehouse. Camp Julien is equipped with a surgeon and an operating room, but
the Germans at Camp Warehouse have even more specialized capabilities, as do the Americans at Bagram.
The entire road has been shut down, and everything within a 100-metre radius evacuated. Terrorists will
sometimes set off one explosion, allow people to gather, and set off another. The Canadians want to ensure
no one else is injured.
Over the radio, a call from the site crackles with the acronym KIA - killed in action. The mood in the room
shifts from serious to sombre.
9:50 a.m. The group is told that one Canadian sustained minor injuries, two sustained more severe injuries
and one is dead. They are told the names will not be released until the next-of-kin have been notified. They
ask anyone who already knows the name of the deceased not to tell anyone else, for now.
10:28 a.m. The sound of a helicopter taking off cuts through the room. One of the Canadians is on his way
to the German hospital, a five-minute flight.
10:30 a.m. A report of a second explosion that may have occurred at 9:30 is received, from the British.
Such reports prove false most of the time, but troops are sent to investigate. Patrols are told to maintain a
presence only - no one is allowed to dismount from their vehicles. The next-of-kin of the Canadian dead
and injured are being notified. Snipers are being deployed in an observational capacity to keep an eye on the
site.
10:40 a.m. Denne and Canadian Brig.-Gen. Jocelyn Lacroix, who assumed command authority of the
Kabul Multi-National Brigade on Saturday, arrive at TOC.
11:35 a.m. The report of the second explosion appears to be incorrect. One Canadian is in surgery at the
German hospital. Two others are being treated at Camp Julien. Denne addresses the men standing around
the table, telling them that next-of-kin are being notified, and their names will be released at a parade in the
afternoon. He tells them that Lacroix is on the site, and talking to the soldiers there.
"This is the price of freedom," he says.
Chief Warrant Officer Dan Bradley steps up. The attack occurred when the two jeeps slowed to drive over
a dug-up section of road - such trenches are common on roads in Kabul. They look and act a lot like big,
rocky speed bumps.
Bradley barks that soldiers will fill the trenches in the road, as soon as possible. He orders that soldiers no
longer slow down for the bumps, if at all possible.
"If the City of Kabul won't do anything about it, 24 Squadron (engineers) sure as hell will," he says.
After the meeting, Denne talks to reporters. "There's carnage out there the likes of which we never see," he
says. "We Canadians don't see people blowing the bejesus out of themselves on a regular basis."
He praised the patrol for maintaining a safe distance between the vehicles, as per orders. If they had been
closer together, there would have been more injuries and perhaps more casualties.
5 p.m. The troops at Camp Julien gather in the parade grounds, in front of a monument to the two
Canadian soldiers killed by a mine in October, and the four from Princess Patricia's Canadian Light
Infantry, 3rd Battalion, who were killed by a U.S. bomb in Afghanistan in April 2002. Lt.-Gen. Andrew
Leslie, deputy commander of International Security Assistance Force, looking pale and drawn, names the
man who died, describes the medical conditions of the men who were injured and makes a short speech.
"Patrols are going to continue, both day and night. We shall not run away and we will stay focussed on our
duty and our mission," he says. "Cpl. Murphy died doing his duty, he died protecting the citizens of this city
... Unfortunately, sometimes, especially in these faraway places where we're doing excellent work under
dangerous circumstances, some of us are called on to make the ultimate sacrifice. For those of you who
have just arrived, please stay focused, I know you will. For those of you who are going home shortly, once
again, stay focussed, stay alert."
He also tells them there was a second explosion Tuesday by the British Camp. No casualties.
After his address, the soldiers disperse quickly. No one is in a talking mood.
9 p.m. A press conference is held at ISAF headquarters. More details of the assault are released. One
Afghani was killed and nine other people injured, including a French civilian. The suicide bomber blew
himself to bits - identification will be difficult. It appears he may have been wearing artillery rounds or
mortar bombs strapped to his chest.
Leslie tells the media that patrols will continue. He vows that the expansion of efforts to repair Afghanistan,
which include provincial reconstruction teams travelling to remote areas outside Kabul, will continue.
"Sometimes there's a price to pay for trying to help others. We're still going to help," he says.
10:15 p.m. Riding home from the press conference with Denne, in an armoured vehicle, there is no bump
in the road.
The soldiers have paved it over.
© Copyright 2004 CanWest News Service
Ottawa Citizen (excerpt) January 28, 2004 - Francine Dubé
"We were talking, just saying how chilly it was, driving," said Cpl. Newman, who was behind the wheel of
the second jeep that day.
"There was a bump in the road. As soon as I slowed down for that bump, the first wheels went past it, as
soon as we went across that, that’s when I felt the concussion, seen glass, got hit by the shrapnel in one
arm. It all happened at once, I didn’t know what it was. I jumped out of the jeep then.
"I never seen him," he said of the suicide bomber. "I’m the driver, I just watch the road. I didn’t see
nobody."
He didn’t immediately feel any pain, though blood from a shrapnel wound to his right shoulder dripped
down his arm off his coat. Major John Vass, a passenger in the first jeep and the officer in command of
Parachute Company, ordered his driver, Corporal Doug Vantassel, to pull over to the side of the road. Maj.
Vass began securing the scene.
Cpl. Vantassel ran back to the second jeep. He helped the three injured soldiers and collected all their
weapons. He checked on Corporal Jamie Murphy, 26, of Conception Harbour, Nfld.,who had been riding in
the back seat of the second jeep, facing backward to protect the convoy against attack from the rear. He
was dead, killed instantly by the explosion.