Goddard died in Taliban ambush

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - The man who led Canadian troops into one of the biggest battles they've faced yet described Friday how hundreds of coalition and Afghan troops foiled insurgent fighters massing for an assault on the governor of Kandahar province, and how Capt. Nichola Goddard met her death in a Taliban ambush.

"We were in the process of doing final searches in the village when one of our call signs came in 'ambush,' " said Lt.-Col. Ian Hope, commander of Task Force Orion's battle group.

"A well co-ordinated Taliban ambush which unfortunately resulted in the death of one of our soldiers."

"She was our eyes and ears," Hope said of Goddard, who was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade while riding in a light armoured vehicle, or LAV.

Goddard's vehicle took fire from two sides and was hit by at least two rocket-propelled grenades, one of which hit the turret. As crew commander, Goddard was exposed from the shoulders up. Although her vehicle survived the explosion, Goddard did not.

The Canadians returned fire from LAVs and 155-millimetre M777 howitzers. Hope then called in an air strike from a U.S. B-1B bomber, which dropped a 225-kilogram bomb on the compound sheltering enemy forces.

The flag-draped coffin of Goddard, 26, of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery based in Shilo, Man., was loaded onto a military aircraft for the flight home during a ramp ceremony on the tarmac of Kandahar Airfield early Friday. Troops from the United States, Britain, Romania, France, Holland, Estonia, Afghanistan joined the Canadian Forces in saluting her.

Her remains are to arrive Saturday afternoon in Trenton, Ont. The funeral is planned for next Friday in Calgary.

In Ottawa, Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of the defence staff, said Goddard was enthusiastic and dedicated to the men she led. "This young lady was a true Canadian, wearing the uniform of Canada, serving her country and accepting the risk that went with that service," said Hillier.

The Memorial Cross will be awarded to her husband Jason Beam, the first male spouse to receive the silver medal previously reserved for widows and mothers. Goddard was the first female Canadian soldier killed in battle while serving in a combat role.

In Kandahar, Hope told reporters about the hide-seek nature of the operation in which Goddard was killed.

It involved about 200 Canadian soldiers and the same number from the Afghan army and police, moving against a large group of Taliban fighters. Afghan intelligence said the insurgents were planning to attack government offices in Kandahar, the provincial capital and second-largest city in Afghanistan.

"We have detailed reports that there were as many as 300 Taliban fighters from three different provinces concentrating in the Panjwai area with the intent of operating in Kandahar city against the Afghan government, against the provincial governor himself," Hope said.

After two days of planning, the Canadians and the Afghans moved into the series of interconnected villages in the area, about 24 kilometres west of Kandahar, on Wednesday morning.

In the first village they entered, Afghan army soldiers captured 15 armed Taliban who had hidden in a mosque.

Shortly after, the battle was joined as a Canadian platoon on the flank began taking fire from assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades from a complex of farm buildings near the mosque.

The Canadians returned fire with howitzers and the cannons of their LAVs. After about 45 minutes, the Afghan forces were able to go in and clear out the area.

For the rest of the day, coalition forces worked their way through the villages and mud-walled compounds of the area, searching carefully through their narrow lanes and ditches.

The troops were finishing up searches for the day and moving toward setting up a defensive position for the night when Hope got word just, before 7 p.m., that Goddard's group had been ambushed.

"It was very canalized terrain - a series of connected compounds and villages with orchards," said Hope. "You can't see behind every wall and into every compound."

"We were sustaining fire from the compound and walls adjacent to the compound. We believe (there were) 20, 30, 40 Taliban in there firing rocket fire and machine-gun fire at our vehicles for over 40 minutes."

Afghan and Canadian troops completed searching the area on Thursday. By the end of the two-day engagement, about 40 Taliban had been killed, an equal number wounded and 17 captured, military officials said.

"The local nationals gave us unprecedented support. People came out of the villages pointing to mosques and to schools saying: 'This is where they've been hiding. They've been taking our food, they don't want our children to go to school'. "

"The people gave us information where they are and (the Taliban) were probably a long way from home. So they chose to stand and fight."

Hope rejected suggestions that plans to attack government buildings in Afghanistan's second-largest city were a sign of increasing Taliban boldness. He said the growing presence of Afghan and foreign troops was squeezing Taliban forces out of areas where they used to operate.

"I believe we're seeing a displacement of Taliban fighters, wherever coalition forces are going, and they're trying to concentrate displaced forces in one place."

The fighting in the area may not be over. Hope acknowledged that Taliban fighters may be creeping into the villages they recently abandoned.

"They will go where we are not. We were getting the clear feeling that as we moved through villages, they were moving into other villages. We were trying to get them into pockets and capture them, they were doing the avoiding. Occasionally, we came into contact."

Here is the CanWest News Services article, which describes the action with a bit more detail:

Soldier died in ambush

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Battle of Panjoway seemed all but over. After a day of heavy fighting with insurgents, Capt. Nichola Goddard's armoured vehicle was sweeping a village in the Panjoway District as coalition forces looked for the remains of a broken Taliban force.

Then, the shooting started again, blazing in from every direction.

"We were in the process of doing final searches in the village when one of our call signs came in 'ambush,' "

recalled Lt.-Col. Ian Hope on Friday as the man who led the Canadian troops described the battle that resulted in the first death of a female Canadian soldier in a combat role.

Hope said coalition forces had stormed into the area earlier in the day, taking on insurgents who had gathered for a planned assault on the governor of Kandahar province.

By the evening, a large number of Taliban were dead and captured, and coalition troops were searching the remaining areas, Hope said.

Then, shortly before 7 p.m., Goddard's column of vehicles was ambushed.

Her head and shoulders sticking out of the hatch of her vehicle, Goddard had been on the radio constantly, directing artillery fire and aerial bombardment.

Rocket-propelled grenade fire hit the turret of Goddard's vehicle, producing a storm of shrapnel that struck her in the head.

"Her LAV was struck with rocket fire, at least two, and possibly three rockets, and unfortunately she was killed," Hope said.

Hope said it would have been a perfect battle Wednesday in Panjoway district but for the loss Calgary's Goddard, the officer Hope considered his best.

"She was in the thick of it in the past two months," Hope said. "She was in the thick of it all day on the 18th of May, to the very end."

On Monday, Hope's headquarters received a request from the governor of Kandahar province and the local police chief. Residents of Panjoway, 24 kilometres west of Kandahar, reported a large number of Taliban fighters had moved into their area -- perhaps 100 to 200 men with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault rifles.

"As it transpired, it was probably more than that," Hope said Friday.

Canadian military planners decided to support the Afghan army and national police in rooting out the insurgents.

The Battle of Panjoway -- or Bravo Guardian -- began Wednesday morning with columns of armoured assault vehicles, armoured jeeps and pickups filled with Afghan soldiers and police officers moving into a cluster of villages in the area.

As coalition and Afghan (ANA) forces entered the first village, residents told them a number of Taliban fighters had taken refuge in their mosque several days before.

"The local nationals asked us to get rid of them," Hope said. "The ANA surrounded the mosque, went into it and captured 15 armed Taliban."

Soon after, a Canadian platoon -- about 25 soldiers -- which had been moving around the fringes of the village came under fire from machine-guns and RPGs. The insurgents were firing from a complex of farms near the mosque.

The Canadians and Afghans returned fire for 45 minutes, taking advantage of canal banks and gullies that ran along the roadway.

An order went out to a 155-mm cannon, perhaps 12 kilometres away, to fire on the farms. Standing in the open hatch of her LAV and functioning as forward observation officer, Goddard calibrated the exact locations of the farms and radioed the targeting information back to the gun. High-explosive shells from the state-of-the-art cannon began to rain down, perhaps seven rounds in all.

They hit precisely where Goddard had intended, Hope said. The LAVs in the area also did their bit, hitting the farms with machine-gun fire and high-explosive rounds.

"She was our eyes and ears for commanders on the ground," Hope said. "Nicky did this better than anyone I have ever seen, ever. She was technically perfect at it. Couple that with the fact she had a voice that could calm you down in stress, that she never lost her cool."

Eventually, the firing from the compounds ended and Afghan soldiers entered to find dead and wounded Taliban, as well as a few survivors, who were handcuffed and led away.

Searching the compounds took the rest of the day.

As it rolled through a nearby village, a line of Canadian military vehicles, including Goddard's, came under fire from insurgents .

It's believed 20 to 40 Taliban took part, firing from various angles in a well co-ordinated ambush, Hope said.

Rifle and machine-gun fire chipped the ceramic armour of some Canadian vehicles.

"We returned fire," said Hope. "We isolated the compound the ambush had been set up in and for 45 minutes we engaged in our own fire."

An artillery round from the Canadian howitzer slammed into the compound and an American B-1 bomber dropped a 500-pound smart bomb on the location.

Caleb Schaber, a Nevada-based journalist, was a few hundred metres from the compound, riding in an American Humvee, when the satellite-guided JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) bomb struck with pinpoint precision.

"It was like the hand of God slapping down and smashing everything," Schaber said Friday. "It was the loudest thing I've ever heard. It was a swoosh, an explosion, thunder. Then all of the firing stopped."

The high mud-brick wall of the compound was still standing, but everything inside had been reduced to dust.

"That ended the engagement," Hope said.

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