Flit

Tragic day for Afghan army mentoring

(Side note: this is post #2,500 on this blog).

In case anyone from the old team is wondering, the ANA soldier who killed 3 Australian mentors and wounded 7 others by apparently emptying a magazine into them on parade at a Patrol Base Peacemaker near Shah Wali Kot was from 6th Kandak, 1/205 Brigade, and had been in the ANA for three years... so probably someone who showed up after the Roto 6 team left in April '09. The Australian mentors were not living with the ANA, but rotating in, visiting from their home base in Uruzgan for 2-3 days at a time, apparently... another indication of mentoring support not keeping up with the growth in Afghan force size. No word on the name of the local Afghan interpreter who was also killed.

It needs to be noted these Australians were killed while supporting the development of 1/205 Brigade after Canadians handed over their involvement with that formation and the Kandahar "combat mission." It's a little simplistic to say the Diggers literally took a bullet for us here, but it's not wrong, either.