In the Line of Fire

In the tinderbox region around Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, the centuries-old code of Pashtunwali is supposed to protect peaceful visitors from harm. So when a four-man Canadian military-outreach team accompanied by Afghan army troops arrived March 4 in the village of Shinkay, 70 km north of Kandahar, to discuss construction projects with local elders, the soldiers felt comfortable removing their helmets. It was a near fatal mistake. They had barely settled down for a chat when a young man, shouting "Allahu akbar" ("God is great"), leapt to his feet and struck Canadian Forces Reserve Lieut. Trevor Greene, 41, a savage ax blow to the back of his head.

As horrified elders watched, Greene's comrades shot dead the assailant--later identified as Abdul Karim, a villager thought to be in his late teens or early 20s--then beat a hasty retreat under the crackle of gunfire. Within hours, the wounded Greene had been airlifted to the U.S. Army hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, where doctors reported late last week that he was in stable but serious condition. He faces "a very long and protracted recovery," says Dr. Catherine Gray, a Canadian Forces medic in Germany.

Back in Afghanistan, Greene's comrades say the attack won't stop the program of village visits that began late last month when Canada took command of the 6,000-strong multinational brigade in the country's volatile south. "We are not going to change things just because of one unusual incident," says Canadian Forces spokeswoman Captain Julie Roberge in Kandahar. A military investigation of the Shinkay attack has so far turned up no evidence of a planned ambush. All the same, the episode has rattled Canadian troops. Says Roberge: "As a soldier you expect gunfire, not an ax."

The gruesome attack came at the end of a troubling inaugural week for Canadians embarked on what may be their most dangerous overseas mission since the Korean War. Some 2,300 soldiers have been deployed to Kandahar, where hard-core Taliban rebels determined to topple the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai retain strong local sympathy. Since the troops officially began their one-year assignment Feb. 28, two Canadians were killed when their light armored vehicle collided with a taxi, and six others have been injured. A total of 14 Canadian soldiers have been wounded in accidents, suicide bombings and other assaults so far in 2006. And as Canadian Forces began a major push last week into villages north of Kandahar, a roadside bomb exploded 800 m from Chief of the Defense Staff Rick Hillier, who was meeting with village elders. Hillier, who commanded an earlier Canadian deployment in Afghanistan, shrugged it off. "It was a day in the life of this mission," he says.

More troubling events are almost certain in the months ahead. The Canadian deployment is the knife edge of an international strategy to shift the management of "stabilization" operations in southern Afghanistan from U.S. forces to the nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)--the transition is expected to be completed this summer--and Taliban rebels are already probing for weak spots in coalition defenses. "The insurgents are learning as they go," says Christian Willach, manager of the Afghanistan ngo Safety Organization. "In the coming months everyone is going to have a harder time."