LAKOKHEL, Afghanistan - Improvised explosive devices are the deadliest obstacle NATO soldiers face in the Afghan trenches - a fact driven home Sunday by the sight of a bloodied Afghan soldier being cared for by one of his young Canadian mentors.
The area around the village of Lakokhel, in the Zhari district west of Kandahar city, is a maze of mud compounds, grape drying huts and orchards - a spot favoured by the Taliban for storing weapons and staging attacks on Canadian and Afghan troops.
Late Saturday night, a group of Afghan National Army forces, under the watchful eye of Canadian members of the Operational Mentoring and Liason Team (OMLT), left the local Canadian base to sweep compounds in the village.
Some hours later, as the troops were on their way out of the compound, disaster struck in a familiar form: an IED, or improvised explosive device.
"As they got to the southern end of it, they tripped the IED," explained Brig. Gen. Denis Thompson, commander of Task Force Kandahar, who was taking part in the night-time exercise.
"This IED was probably constructed to blow up guys who were entering (the compound), and that would explain why the injuries were relatively minor."
A half-dozen Afghan soldiers were hurt in the blast, the most seriously injured suffering shrapnel to the face and eyes.
Master Bombardier Matt Beaupre was only about three metres from the blast.
"To me, it was quite a good size explosion - big enough to shake the guys around a little bit. That's as close as I've been or would want to be," said Beaupre, who earned a field promotion from Thompson after the incident.
"It gave me quite a scare."
Beaupre's colleague, Master Bombardier Mike Walsh, was on the radio with the team nearest the blast.
"I was 20 or 30 metres out when the IED went off. On the radio itself, there was silence and that was pretty scary. I thought my friends were dead," he said quietly.
Under the Afghan moon, the dust cloud from the blast was clearly visible, Walsh added. "I had to keep the ANA patrol under control because they turned to mad panic."
The Afghan soldiers were so worried about their comrades, they loaded up the injured into the back of their Ford Rangers and transported them to the base instead of waiting for armoured units to retrieve them.
Back at the base, the few Canadian soldiers still there had a problem keeping the worried Afghan troops at bay while aid was being administered. Beaupre was among those providing emergency first aid.
"You're OK, man. You'll be OK," he said, gently patting the chest of a wounded soldier who was lying quietly with a dressing over his left eye.
"I've done a little bit of medical work before on my past tours. I just figured I'd lend a hand and here was a lot of guys to treat so I just grabbed one and did my best until medical support was available," Beaupre said later.
"It's very hard to take care of the ANA, again because of the language barrier," he explained. "You always have to have the help of an interpreter and there were only two - it makes it a little bit harder."
Walsh said he understands how lucky everyone was on what is often an everyday occurrence in southern Afghanistan, especially on a rare night excursion.
"We knew it was a bad area to go into," he said.
"I didn't realize it would be like that at night. It gives you the creeps, the hair stands up on the back of your neck, but it's still a job and you've gotta push forward."
