On the front line in Afghanistan

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By Damian Grammaticas BBC News, Afghanistan

More than 2,000 Canadian troops are based in southern Afghanistan

Nato forces in Afghanistan say they are on the verge of a major success in their battles against Taleban fighters but some of the troops have their doubts about the mission.

At first it looked like a bird - maybe a bat - far away, skimming low over the trees, twisting left and right.

Then it leapt, soared upwards, clear to see now, a British Harrier jet.

The aircraft climbed high above the grey-blue mountains and vanished, no trace of it in the perfect, cloudless sky.

From my vantage point, on top of a small two-storey building, I was watching a battle unfolding.

Two Apache helicopters operated by the Dutch military appeared from the east, circling like hunters looking for prey.

Then they flew fast over the trees, every few seconds there was a rasping snarl as they unleashed their rockets.

Canadian Nato troops had spotted some Taleban men trying to outflank them.

There were thumping explosions as Nato guns pounded shells into the area, sending up plumes of smoke and dust.

Even closer to the battle than me, ran the main highway leading west from Kandahar city.

Finally somebody back home is taking this thing seriously Major Geoff Abthorpe

Bizarrely, while the fighting raged, the traffic never stopped. Lorries laden with goods trundled past, taxis packed with people, a couple of tractors, even a man on a bicycle pedalling leisurely down the road.

Afghans have seen so much conflict it is almost as if it is part of the landscape.

The battle pitted Nato forces, with all their firepower and technological might, against the Taleban militia, men armed with little more than they can carry - AK47 machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

It was far from clear who was winning.

The Canadians were advancing, but painfully slowly, just 200 metres in a week. Crouching behind a low mud wall, Major Geoff Abthorpe pointed towards the smoking shell of a house just ahead.

"That's our next objective" he said. "But we need more armoured vehicles, more men, more firepower. They are coming. Finally somebody back home is taking this thing seriously."

The section of troops listening punched the air with relief. "Yeah," they shouted.

Meticulous planning

The major has an easy, fatherly familiarity with his soldiers.

Every move he makes in battle is minutely planned.

The Canadians lost five men in the first week of the operation and Major Abthorpe is anxious not to lose any more.

He pores over satellite photos before ordering his men to advance even a short distance.

But he was frustrated. "The problem is," he said candidly, "the enemy has the single-handed advantage in this terrain."

The plains west of Kandahar stretch for miles, a vast treeless expanse of yellow-brown desert.

It is so dry the earth is little more than powder.

In late afternoon the boiling air whips itself into tornadoes. You can see them coming from miles away, vast columns of dust whirling across the baking sands.

On the edge of the desert is a smudge of green where a river feeds a patchwork of orchards, vineyards and fields.

Guerrilla warfare

Will this latest intrusion by outsiders trying to change Afghanistan founder like so many before it?

This is where the battle was being fought. Several hundred Taleban had dug in to mud-walled compounds and bunkers.

They used the fields and ditches for cover, sneaking up on the Canadians, firing at them and then vanishing.

It is a classic case of a heavy modern army struggling to subdue guerrilla fighters who know their terrain intimately.

And for decades the area has been a defensive stronghold.

When the Russians invaded Afghanistan, they fought two major battles on this very spot.

The precedent is an ominous one. Both times the Russians were defeated.

In the shade under some trees close to the front was an Afghan man working with the Canadians.

"The Taleban, they are feeling strong right now," he muttered. "They know they are hurting the Canadians."

He offered me some sweet, red watermelon plundered from the fields around us.

Soldiers' doubts

The losses are gnawing away at Canadian confidence.

What struck me was just how many doubts the Canadian soldiers seemed plagued by.

What are they in Afghanistan for? I was asked a number of times. Is it worth the lives of friends and colleagues?

Crouching in a gulley, Corporal Brad Kilcup confided, "All the guys out here, the only thing they think about is getting home safe."

A small man, his face caked with dirt, he fidgeted nervously with his gun.

Sitting beside him was Private Ryan Hunt, a sandy-haired, boyish-looking 21-year-old.

"All we want to do is help these dudes reconstruct their country," he added hopefully.

Afghanistan is a country of aching beauty.

The landscapes, the wild, jagged mountains, the empty expanses are breathtaking. There is a purity, a clarity about the light that seems to make everything luminous.

But it is a brutal place too. The sun is so savage it saps your energy in minutes.

Will this latest intrusion by outsiders trying to change Afghanistan founder like so many before it? I do not know.

But this is a land where many hopes have died, choking in the dust.

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 16 September, 2006 at 1130 BST on BBC Radio 4. Please check the <a HREF="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/3187926.stm">programme schedules </a> for World Service transmission times.