Fitaloon at MicroShaft

Video from Channel 4: As they say

In a remarkable close-up account from behind enemy lines in Afghanistan, Channel 4 News video journalist Vaughan Smith joins the Grenadier Guards to reveal how British forces are using ambush strategies to beat the Taliban.

A clandestine operation carried out by the Reconnaisance Platoon of the Grenadier Guards battle group took place in northern Helmand province during the initial stages of Operation Moshtarak.

Channel 4 News has had unique access to the strategic operations and preparations behind the offensive.

Video journalist Vaughan Smith, a former army captain, was embedded with the Grenadier Guards in the weeks leading up to Moshtarak, based in an old British fort, now called Camp Shawqat, in the central Nad-e-Ali district.

Captain Jim Young, the officer who led the platoon, confirmed that his men had “65 confirmed enemy kills” in the four months leading up to the new offensive.

Channel 4 News filmed the troops as they lay in wait for Taliban insurgents. British soldiers worked side by side with their counterparts from the Afghan National Army.

At least three enemy insurgents died in the ambush which was intended to destabilise the Taliban.

In the next phase of the operation the Grenadiers with an attached company from the Royal Welch Regiment then “cleared” the village of Kushal Kalay of roadside bombs as part of the “clear, hold and build” objectives of Moshtarak.

Afghanistan: ambush behind Taliban lines – Channel 4 News.

Tributes to the five men killed in Afghanistan on Tuesday 3rd November were posted here by the MOD.

Warrant Officer Class 1 Darren Chant, Sergeant Matthew Telford and Guardsman James Major, all of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, as well as Corporal Steven Boote and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith, both of the Royal Military Police, were killed on Tuesday 3 November 2009.

The soldiers were all killed as a result of gunshot wounds sustained in an attack at a police checkpoint in the Nad e-Ali district of Helmand province.

Click here to read the full eulogies and tributes to Warrant Officer Class 1 Darren Chant, Sergeant Matthew Telford and Guardsman James Major.

Click here to read the full eulogies and tributes to Corporal Steven Boote and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith.

Paying tribute to the five men, Secretary of State for Defence, Bob Ainsworth, said:

“I was so very sorry to hear of the deaths of these five brave soldiers, killed in the course of their duties in Afghanistan. That they were killed by one of those they were working alongside is a particular tragedy.

“The memory of WO1 Darren Chant, Sgt Matthew Telford, Cpl Nicholas Webster-Smith, Cpl Steven Boote and Guardsman James Major will live on. They were men of courage who died building security in Afghanistan and protecting people in the UK from terrorism.

“My deepest sympathies and condolences lie with their grieving families, friends, and all those who served alongside them, who will feel the pain of loss most intensely. They are in all our thoughts.”

My thoughts lie with the many family, friends and colleagues of the fallen.

Ministry of Defence | Defence News | Military Operations | WO1 Darren Chant, Sgt Matthew Telford, Guardsman James Major, Cpl Steven Boote and Cpl Nicholas Webster-Smith killed in Afghanistan.