But They Had A Very Good Reason

It sounds likes something from Monty Python, but it's true: the first live missile warshot fired by Britain's Apache helicopters in Afghanistan was fired at a French vehicle. And the French actually thanked them.

The off-road vehicle was disabled when French special operations forces and Afghan soldiers were ambushed by Taliban insurgents in southwestern Afghanistan's Helmand province last week. The lightly-armed French and Afghan column ended up in an eight-hour firefight with a much larger quantity of Taliban fighters. But they were saved by the cavalry -- a cavalry bearing the name of a legendary tribe of Indian warriors.

British Apache attack helicopters, working in pairs and firing their 30-mm cannons, were able to disrupt the Taliban attack, acting as "flying artillery." British infantry were also landed, but with night falling the commander on the scene decided to withdraw. One of the French vehicles could not be recovered, and had to be abandoned in place. The Hellfire anti-tank missile was fired to destroy the vehicle so that the enemy could not salvage it.

Each Hellfire missile costs the British people 65,000 UK pounds. Apart from the expenditure, the British forces suffered no losses.

The original column was not so fortunate. The French commandos lost two men and the Afghan government forces 16. Over 40 friendly forces were wounded. Taliban killed were estimated at over 100.

The French unit was reportedly the 1er Regiment Parachutiste d'Infanterie de Marine (RPIMA), home-based in Bayonne, generally considered the nation's most elite force.

While the term "Taliban" is used as a catch-all for Afghan insurgents, the government of Afghanistan has charged that many of the insurgents are being recruited overseas and trained and equipped in Pakistan, a charge that Pakistan's authorities deny categorically. The Coalition forces have not been willing to discuss the origin of the hundreds of Taliban; Brigadier Ed Butler, the senior UK commander in Helmand, would only admit that, "[W]e have porous borders around us and that is a concern."

Unless their objective is press coverage, the nationwide offensive has generally been a failure for the Taliban; their attacks have been beaten back, and they've suffered heavy casualties, while inflicting relatively few. The open question is whether the NATO armies, which primarily came to Afghanistan to operate Provincial Reconstruction Teams focused on nation-building, will remain if they're plunged into further fighting.

So far, the fighting is mainly going NATO's way -- and a significant factor is the presence of the Apache helicopters. British Apaches are constructed under license in the UK by Agusta-Westland as the AH Mk1 and are equivalent to the US AH-64D Apache Longbow, but have Rolls-Royce RTM322 engines in place of the GE T700s in their American cousins. (The Apache photograph with this article is a photograph of one of the now-deployed Apaches on a predeployment exercise in the UK).

In addition to the US, which operates some 500 Apache Longbows, and the UK, seven other nations have ordered the attack helicopter: Egypt, Greece, Holland, Israel, Japan, Kuwait and Singapore.

FMI: www.mod.uk