[blue]I've never been prouder of the fact I'm Canadian then I am now.[/blue]
Canadian snipers operate with cool but deadly efficiency in Afghan battle

[Canadians in combat]
Canadian Press

Monday, March 18, 2002
[img]http://mirror.media.canada.com/cp/20020318/65165da2-5727-4598-a371-aea007c1e622.jpg[/img]
A Canadian sniper watches over Canadian troops conducting operations in a valley in Afghanistan, far below the castle formation on the mountain known as the Whale. (CP/Stephen Thorne)


BAGRAM, Afghanistan (CP) - Canada's snipers have ducked mortars and dodged bullets in eastern Afghanistan in the last two weeks. They were nearly shot to pieces by a U.S. Apache helicopter gunship - it stopped firing just in the nick of time.

They are said to have the highest number of confirmed kills of any regular army unit in the battle, though they deny it. And three of them, along with three U.S. special forces soldiers, also rescued a company of the American 101st Airborne Division that was pinned down by enemy fire on the first day of Operation Anaconda - the mission to find and destroy al-Qaida and Taliban forces in the rugged region south of Gardez.

In an interview on a castle-shaped rock from which al-Qaida fighters gave them days of misery earlier this month, one of two detachments of Canada's snipers described an arduous first week of battle. Because of the job they do, the three youthful but cool professional sharpshooters want to be identified only by pseudonyms with their real ages, ranks and home towns.

They landed at first light on March 2, on the first U.S. helicopter flying in with troops from the fabled Screaming Eagles. The troops started taking small-arms fire at the top of the first ridge they hit.

The Americans were pinned down but the three snipers and three special forces troops found a way out. They moved forward and sought high ground.

From there, they began picking off al-Qaida fighters, who were shooting from behind rock piles. A one-hour firefight ensued.

"As soon as we got rid of one guy, another one would come up, and another one," said Master Cpl. Alex, a multi-talented 30-year-old raised in Ottawa and Halifax.

Soon after that battle ended, another began.

Troops from the 101st were able to move into blocking positions while the six engaged a determined enemy.

"The six of us suppressed fire and neutralized the enemy - they were either dead or they ran away," said Alex. "Most of them were killed, as far as we could see."

The snipers were in their element - free-ranging, aggressive, taking the initiative.

But their talent for concealment nearly cost them their lives at the muzzles of an Apache helicopter that came in, guns blazing, chasing an enemy target just beyond them.

Lying prone in their British desert fatigues with padded elbows, front torsos and legs, they were almost invisible against the dry valley floor.

They heard the sound, looked back, saw the dirt spitting up in two rows - and rolled.

The pilot must have seen them at the last moment because the strafing stopped less than a metre from their position.

Their biggest concern, it seemed, was that their coveted .50-calibre sniper rifles almost got hit. "I don't know how the .50 didn't get hit," said Alex. "We laughed after that. You gotta."

For the sake of speed, they were moving without their 50-kilogram rucksacks and spare ammunition. But then they were running low and needed special optics equipment.

Under fire, Cpl. Ed, 25, of Manuels outside St. John's, Nfld., ran the 100 metres back down one side of the ridge and up the other - and then back again with their gear in tow.

They were 3,500 metres high. At such altitudes, the air was gaspingly thin even at a brisk walk. Although extremely fit, Ed was nearly passing out after the two-way sprint, with AK-47 rounds nipping at his heels.

But Ed, who's developed an uncanny Sean Connery imitation, didn't stop there.

Ed grabbed his M-203 grenade launcher and started firing at the al-Qaida fighters who were giving them trouble from a nearby creek bed.

"We don't know what happened," said Alex. "All we know is, their firing stopped."

The snipers also helped extract American troops in trouble.

Under cover of darkness, they and their U.S. special forces comrades led soldiers of the Airborne out of the danger area, scouting ahead for enemy threats and bringing the Americans up a little ways at a time until they eventually linked up with friendly forces.

"Things had to happen, man," Alex said.

They slept the night. All the next day they were under mortar fire - and off and on for the next nine days and nights.

"The mortars were the worst thing," said Master Cpl. Warren, 30, who was born in Owen Sound and grew up in Kincardine, Ont.

Warren knows about mortars; he's a qualified mortarman.

Mortars are an infantry battalion's longest range weapon. Lobbed from up to 5,684 metres away and guided by forward observers, they pack a powerful punch. They don't have to be terribly accurate. Their kill radius is 40 metres. Shrapnel flies in all directions, tearing apart limbs, heads, torsos.

Mortarmen and the forward observers, known as fire controllers, bracket their targets, adjusting their aim from the outside in - one to the left, one to the right - narrowing their range and bearing until they hit their mark.

At one point, the three Canadian snipers were pinned down by mortar fire in a dry riverbed. They were caught out in the open. The rounds came as close as 10 metres.

"They were bracketing us, walking them in," said Warren. "We'd move and they'd adjust fire. Eventually, they ran out of rounds, or they just gave up. I don't know."

They all escaped unscathed physically, but Warren admits the experience will stay with him a long time.

The incoming shells sounded like large birds fluttering their wings, he said. The sound changed as they came closer.

"You could hear the fins rotating as they came in," he said, making a noise like a spinning roulette wheel. "It's a sound I'll never forget."

Senior military officials in Ottawa made a point of praising their work.

"The sniper teams suppressed enemy mortars and heavy machine-gun positions with deadly accuracy," Vice-Admiral Greg Maddison said last week. "Their skills are credited with likely having saved many allied lives."

The snipers returned to base in Bagram, near Kabul, on March 11. Two days later - last Wednesday - the three were out again.

This time they were part of Operation Harpoon, with Canadian troops on "the Whale," a mountain overlooking the Shah-e-Kot valley where al-Qaida fighters were putting up stiff resistance.

Operation Harpoon, carried out in conjunction with Operation Anaconda, consisted of 500 Canadian and 100 U.S. troops under the command of Lt.-Col. Pat Stogran, who leads Canadian Forces in Afghanistan in the biggest ground offensive since the Korean War.

On Thursday, the snipers joined troops from the U.S. 10th Mountain Division in a Canadian-conceived assault on the castle-like rock feature from which al-Qaida fire controllers had guided mortars into their former positions with the 101st.

They took the rock with little resistance, killing several al-Qaida fighters and destroying an extensive cave complex.

The operation showed that Canada "is capable of combat operations," Ed said.

"It was nice as snipers to actually get to do our job in theatre," added Warren.

"I'm extremely happy to be here," said Alex.

"It's not about grabbing oil or anything like that. It's something important."

[b]"Every time something happens, I just think Sept. 11 and all the people who were not involved in armed conflict and were hurt. Innocent people - firefighters, police, women and children - who died just because a man doesn't agree with the way another people live."[/b]

5subslr5
A friend of mine who builds sniper rifles [url=http://www.armament.com/]Made in Canada[/url] was in CFB Gagetown when the Forces was trying new rifles and equipment including the 408 Cheyenne. He had a chance to shoot it. According to him although impressive he didn't think Canada would be switching from their .50 rifles anytime soon. At that time (last summer) there was no factory ammo available,no optics and the rifle had no history with which to base any research into quality or reliability. Also the forces has .50 hmg's which means we have .50 ammo up the wazzoo and it didn't make economical sense to buy a rifle in a caliber that no other weapon used. But who knows what will happen in the future.