Read Online A Million Bullets: The Real Story of the British Army in Afghanistan by James Fergusson - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: James Fergusson
Tags: United States, History, England, Military, Europe, middle east, Great Britain, Ireland, 21st Century, Modern (16th-21st Centuries), Afghan War
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attacked we would respond with force. I explained that we were there at the invitation of their government – that we were there to provide security, to help. I said that development money was available. I asked them what they wanted.'
The most remarkable feature of the meeting was what was not discussed: the Taliban. 'It was the real elephant in the room. They just refused to talk about it. I don't think the T-word was mentioned even once.'
Most of those attending remained silent throughout the hour-long meeting. Some of them just stared at the foreigner in their midst with an intensity bordering on hostility – 'eyeballing', Rex later called it. He had the strong impression that they were sizing him up. The ANP later confirmed that two of the so-called elders were actually Taliban commanders, for whom the shura was an unmissable opportunity to inspect the Gurkhas' defences from the inside.
That they were able to do so without the genuine elders objecting said a great deal about their power and influence in the town. The elders were either intimidated by or colluding with the Taliban, but by this point it made little difference. As a peacemaking exercise, the shura was almost pointless. Rex knew he was only going through the motions, and that matters had probably already gone too far for a showdown to be avoided. 'About the only thing of any substance that came out of it was a request that the NDS wear uniform when on duty in the town,' Rex said.
This seemed fair enough. The plainclothes men of the National Directorate of Security, a handful of whom had been assigned to the Now Zad mission, were tough, savvy operators who answered to the Minister of Interior in Kabul. Rex took the request as an encouraging sign that at least some of the elders recognized the need for law and order, and were prepared to recognize Kabul's authority. Uniformed men would naturally be more easily identifiable to the suspicious townspeople, and so were more likely to be trusted. An armed NDS patrol was already scheduled for that night. This time, at Rex's insistence, they left the compound in regulation blue.
The request, however, was almost certainly a trick. It was true that uniforms made the NDS men recognizable to the townspeople, but they also marked them out for the Taliban. The six-man patrol headed north up the main bazaar and had covered no more than 150 metres when they were attacked. Whether it was an ambush, or whether they had simply bumped into a Taliban unit infiltrating the town from the other direction, it was impossible to say. Caught in a hail of machine-gun and small-arms fire, one of the NDS men was immediately wounded. The Gurkhas in the sangar overlooking the bazaar stood to, and observed through their night vision goggles as the NDS men rushed back towards them, dragging their injured comrade between them. 'The weight of fire that was going down, it was completely amazing that they made it,' recalled Lieutenant Angus Mathers, Rex's second-in-command. This was the trigger for an attack on the compound that lasted all night. It had evidently been many days in the preparation, and it signalled a sharp change in the Taliban's tactics. It was 12 July, and the battle for Now Zad district centre had begun.
Within ten minutes of the patrol's leaving the compound, all four corner sangars as well as the Control Tower were in action. It began with tracer fire and a pair of RPGs that whizzed past Sangar 4 from a bombed-out building at the far side of some open ground 200 metres to the north-west. Two minutes later, every doorway and window in a wide arc from the north to the east seemed to be crackling with small-arms fire. Sangars 1, 3 and the Control Tower led the response.
The killing power at the Gurkhas' disposal was not in doubt, but the defenders were still required to put their heads above the parapet to fire their weapons. All the positions had been 'fixed' in advance by the enemy, and the two heavy-calibre
The most remarkable feature of the meeting was what was not discussed: the Taliban. 'It was the real elephant in the room. They just refused to talk about it. I don't think the T-word was mentioned even once.'
Most of those attending remained silent throughout the hour-long meeting. Some of them just stared at the foreigner in their midst with an intensity bordering on hostility – 'eyeballing', Rex later called it. He had the strong impression that they were sizing him up. The ANP later confirmed that two of the so-called elders were actually Taliban commanders, for whom the shura was an unmissable opportunity to inspect the Gurkhas' defences from the inside.
That they were able to do so without the genuine elders objecting said a great deal about their power and influence in the town. The elders were either intimidated by or colluding with the Taliban, but by this point it made little difference. As a peacemaking exercise, the shura was almost pointless. Rex knew he was only going through the motions, and that matters had probably already gone too far for a showdown to be avoided. 'About the only thing of any substance that came out of it was a request that the NDS wear uniform when on duty in the town,' Rex said.
This seemed fair enough. The plainclothes men of the National Directorate of Security, a handful of whom had been assigned to the Now Zad mission, were tough, savvy operators who answered to the Minister of Interior in Kabul. Rex took the request as an encouraging sign that at least some of the elders recognized the need for law and order, and were prepared to recognize Kabul's authority. Uniformed men would naturally be more easily identifiable to the suspicious townspeople, and so were more likely to be trusted. An armed NDS patrol was already scheduled for that night. This time, at Rex's insistence, they left the compound in regulation blue.
The request, however, was almost certainly a trick. It was true that uniforms made the NDS men recognizable to the townspeople, but they also marked them out for the Taliban. The six-man patrol headed north up the main bazaar and had covered no more than 150 metres when they were attacked. Whether it was an ambush, or whether they had simply bumped into a Taliban unit infiltrating the town from the other direction, it was impossible to say. Caught in a hail of machine-gun and small-arms fire, one of the NDS men was immediately wounded. The Gurkhas in the sangar overlooking the bazaar stood to, and observed through their night vision goggles as the NDS men rushed back towards them, dragging their injured comrade between them. 'The weight of fire that was going down, it was completely amazing that they made it,' recalled Lieutenant Angus Mathers, Rex's second-in-command. This was the trigger for an attack on the compound that lasted all night. It had evidently been many days in the preparation, and it signalled a sharp change in the Taliban's tactics. It was 12 July, and the battle for Now Zad district centre had begun.
Within ten minutes of the patrol's leaving the compound, all four corner sangars as well as the Control Tower were in action. It began with tracer fire and a pair of RPGs that whizzed past Sangar 4 from a bombed-out building at the far side of some open ground 200 metres to the north-west. Two minutes later, every doorway and window in a wide arc from the north to the east seemed to be crackling with small-arms fire. Sangars 1, 3 and the Control Tower led the response.
The killing power at the Gurkhas' disposal was not in doubt, but the defenders were still required to put their heads above the parapet to fire their weapons. All the positions had been 'fixed' in advance by the enemy, and the two heavy-calibre
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