ianstone
05-19-2010, 10:40 AM
May 17, 2010
Photoblog: IED attack
Richard Pohle
Day Two of Operation Eagle Claw, and I groggily awoke from a doze inside a heavily armoured American MRAP (mine resistant ambush protected vehicle).
Reporter Tom Coghlan and I were with paratroopers of the American 82nd Airborne division as they accompanied Afghan Army soldiers to search villages that had known Taleban sympathies. We knew that these villages could have rings of defensive IEDs around them, and despite the fact we were travelling in one of the safest vehicles possible in the circumstances I was still nervous.
We were manoeuvering onto an "overwatch" position on a small hill overlooking the village of Khan Kalay. I looked out of the MRAP's small window at the village, vaguely aware of the Afghan army moving into their start positions and a humvee rumbling down a track to the side of us. The vehicle disappeared behind the lee of the hill.
Then I heard a sickening thud and saw a fountain of dust, smoke and pieces of metal fly into the air where the Humvee had just driven. "IED!" our vehicle's gunner shouted.
In the shocked seconds afterwards confusion reigned in our vehicle. I tried to find the bag I had put my cameras into the night before to protect them from the dust, but failed to locate it under a jumble of army ration boxes and backpacks. Tom leapt out of the vehicle and raced down to the scene while I pulled and wrestled with the packs. "Watch out for more IEDs!" I shouted after him.
http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed1c28970c-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed1c28970c-popup)
The Afghan soldiers were running towards the blast. I followed, careful to keep within the tyre tracks made by our unit's vehicles. I saw the remains of the Humvee twisted and lying on its roof. I tried to prepare myself for what I would see. Surely no one could come out of that wreckage alive.
On a stretcher lay the first victim. He was surrounded by comrades and I could see that his feet were twisted into awkward positions. Not wanting to disrupt the frantic aid he was getting I kept myself back, photographing the scene on a medium zoom lens.
http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed12fb970c-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed12fb970c-popup)
Shouts came from soldiers at the wreck. There was someone else still inside and alive. They soon extracted him and carried him out in a stretcher. The screams from this soldier were horrendous. He had a serious head injury and was writhing on the stretcher in obvious agony.
http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef0133edbac67e970b-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef0133edbac67e970b-popup)
American medics took over the scene, frantically bandaging and trying to stop the bleeding. “We need to get them to the LZ!” one of them said “How long till the birds (helicopters) get in?” another shouted to the sergeant, who had a radio to his ear. “They're saying 20 mikes (minutes).”
The Americans and Afghans picked up the stretchers and carried the two injured soldiers to a nearby wadi that would be used as a makeshift helicopter landing zone. I followed, photographing as I went. I wanted to run ahead and photograph them as they came towards me but I was aware there could be more unexploded IEDs in the area.
At the LZ the treatment continued. It was obvious that one of the two was dying. There seemed to be no bone structure in his body as his limbs flopped without substance. Two of his friends squatted next to him, in obvious distress as they looked at his body. I needed to photograph this scene as I felt it encapsulated the trauma of what was happening, but I didn't want to add to their distress by shoving my camera in their faces. I stood back again and waited for a moment when a gap appeared between the medics and took only a few frames.
http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed1639970c-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed1639970c-popup)
I knew that the scenes around me were horrible and I knew I was under restrictions imposed by the embed agreement that I could not show an identifiable picture of a casualty. I didn't want to photograph the face of the dying Afghan, anyway, as it was just a bloody, crushed mess. So I self censored what I was photographing by deliberately shooting at angles that hid the face. I hoped, though, that I was still accurately recording the scene. No one took any notice of me at all. I took this as justification for keeping back out of everyone's way.
The screams of the other soldier took me back to where he was lying. A medic was standing over him with the interpreter next to him. “You tell him I can't give him anything for the pain because of his head injury,” the exasperated medic told the interpreter. “If I give him something he may die.”
The screams from this soldier were horrific. I heard him shouting for Allah as he lay, writhing, on the stretcher.
http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed2ed0970c-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed2ed0970c-popup)
Off to the side and looking distressed and confused was a young Afghan soldier. He was being comforted by colleagues. He had a small bandage on his hand. I was told he was in the vehicle as well and had only a recieced a small cut. How could anyone walk away from that mess with just a cut hand?
At long last the sound of helicopters could be heard. They clattered over head and then landed in a swirl of dust. The American and Afghans wrapped their colleagues in space blankets and rushed them to the helicopter loading them on. Within seconds the helicopters took off.
http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef0133edbae621970b-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef0133edbae621970b-popup)
http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef0133edbad47e970b-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef0133edbad47e970b-popup)
A
nd then silence. Everyone seemed shocked and we all walked back towards the wrecked humvee. The ground was littered with bloody dressings and swabs. We walked past the vehicle radiator and motor engine parts blown hundreds of yards from the vehicle. The interpreter we had been joking with the day before and who had a wicked sense of humour just sat on the ground with his knees drawn up and rocked slowly backwards and forwards. I said a few words to him but he didn't respond. http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed2232970c-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed2232970c-popup)
http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed23a4970c-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed23a4970c-popup)
We later heard that one of the Afghan soldiers didn't make it to the hospital. He died en route. I couldn't really comprehend the enormity of what I, personally, had photographed, and yet it was merely a small incident in Afghan terms.
This happens every day here.
http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed2448970c-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed2448970c-popup)
Later the same day we learned we may have had a narrow escape. A US army bomb disposal team found and destroyed another IED near where the evacuation helicopter had landed.
The ANA are taking the hits and bouncing back. That is down to the excellent coalition training.
Photoblog: IED attack
Richard Pohle
Day Two of Operation Eagle Claw, and I groggily awoke from a doze inside a heavily armoured American MRAP (mine resistant ambush protected vehicle).
Reporter Tom Coghlan and I were with paratroopers of the American 82nd Airborne division as they accompanied Afghan Army soldiers to search villages that had known Taleban sympathies. We knew that these villages could have rings of defensive IEDs around them, and despite the fact we were travelling in one of the safest vehicles possible in the circumstances I was still nervous.
We were manoeuvering onto an "overwatch" position on a small hill overlooking the village of Khan Kalay. I looked out of the MRAP's small window at the village, vaguely aware of the Afghan army moving into their start positions and a humvee rumbling down a track to the side of us. The vehicle disappeared behind the lee of the hill.
Then I heard a sickening thud and saw a fountain of dust, smoke and pieces of metal fly into the air where the Humvee had just driven. "IED!" our vehicle's gunner shouted.
In the shocked seconds afterwards confusion reigned in our vehicle. I tried to find the bag I had put my cameras into the night before to protect them from the dust, but failed to locate it under a jumble of army ration boxes and backpacks. Tom leapt out of the vehicle and raced down to the scene while I pulled and wrestled with the packs. "Watch out for more IEDs!" I shouted after him.
http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed1c28970c-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed1c28970c-popup)
The Afghan soldiers were running towards the blast. I followed, careful to keep within the tyre tracks made by our unit's vehicles. I saw the remains of the Humvee twisted and lying on its roof. I tried to prepare myself for what I would see. Surely no one could come out of that wreckage alive.
On a stretcher lay the first victim. He was surrounded by comrades and I could see that his feet were twisted into awkward positions. Not wanting to disrupt the frantic aid he was getting I kept myself back, photographing the scene on a medium zoom lens.
http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed12fb970c-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed12fb970c-popup)
Shouts came from soldiers at the wreck. There was someone else still inside and alive. They soon extracted him and carried him out in a stretcher. The screams from this soldier were horrendous. He had a serious head injury and was writhing on the stretcher in obvious agony.
http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef0133edbac67e970b-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef0133edbac67e970b-popup)
American medics took over the scene, frantically bandaging and trying to stop the bleeding. “We need to get them to the LZ!” one of them said “How long till the birds (helicopters) get in?” another shouted to the sergeant, who had a radio to his ear. “They're saying 20 mikes (minutes).”
The Americans and Afghans picked up the stretchers and carried the two injured soldiers to a nearby wadi that would be used as a makeshift helicopter landing zone. I followed, photographing as I went. I wanted to run ahead and photograph them as they came towards me but I was aware there could be more unexploded IEDs in the area.
At the LZ the treatment continued. It was obvious that one of the two was dying. There seemed to be no bone structure in his body as his limbs flopped without substance. Two of his friends squatted next to him, in obvious distress as they looked at his body. I needed to photograph this scene as I felt it encapsulated the trauma of what was happening, but I didn't want to add to their distress by shoving my camera in their faces. I stood back again and waited for a moment when a gap appeared between the medics and took only a few frames.
http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed1639970c-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed1639970c-popup)
I knew that the scenes around me were horrible and I knew I was under restrictions imposed by the embed agreement that I could not show an identifiable picture of a casualty. I didn't want to photograph the face of the dying Afghan, anyway, as it was just a bloody, crushed mess. So I self censored what I was photographing by deliberately shooting at angles that hid the face. I hoped, though, that I was still accurately recording the scene. No one took any notice of me at all. I took this as justification for keeping back out of everyone's way.
The screams of the other soldier took me back to where he was lying. A medic was standing over him with the interpreter next to him. “You tell him I can't give him anything for the pain because of his head injury,” the exasperated medic told the interpreter. “If I give him something he may die.”
The screams from this soldier were horrific. I heard him shouting for Allah as he lay, writhing, on the stretcher.
http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed2ed0970c-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed2ed0970c-popup)
Off to the side and looking distressed and confused was a young Afghan soldier. He was being comforted by colleagues. He had a small bandage on his hand. I was told he was in the vehicle as well and had only a recieced a small cut. How could anyone walk away from that mess with just a cut hand?
At long last the sound of helicopters could be heard. They clattered over head and then landed in a swirl of dust. The American and Afghans wrapped their colleagues in space blankets and rushed them to the helicopter loading them on. Within seconds the helicopters took off.
http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef0133edbae621970b-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef0133edbae621970b-popup)
http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef0133edbad47e970b-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef0133edbad47e970b-popup)
A
nd then silence. Everyone seemed shocked and we all walked back towards the wrecked humvee. The ground was littered with bloody dressings and swabs. We walked past the vehicle radiator and motor engine parts blown hundreds of yards from the vehicle. The interpreter we had been joking with the day before and who had a wicked sense of humour just sat on the ground with his knees drawn up and rocked slowly backwards and forwards. I said a few words to him but he didn't respond. http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed2232970c-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed2232970c-popup)
http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed23a4970c-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed23a4970c-popup)
We later heard that one of the Afghan soldiers didn't make it to the hospital. He died en route. I couldn't really comprehend the enormity of what I, personally, had photographed, and yet it was merely a small incident in Afghan terms.
This happens every day here.
http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed2448970c-800wi (http://timesnews.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d811753ef013480ed2448970c-popup)
Later the same day we learned we may have had a narrow escape. A US army bomb disposal team found and destroyed another IED near where the evacuation helicopter had landed.
The ANA are taking the hits and bouncing back. That is down to the excellent coalition training.