Nad-e Ali, Afghanistan - Using small arms, boobytraps and
rockets, Taliban insurgents notched up a succession of casualties on
the new company of Estonian troops within a month of them deploying
in southern Afghanistan.
A burst of rifle fire severely wounded one soldier on the first
patrol by Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, and a comrade
lost his legs to a home-made bomb two weeks later.
A third soldier died and three were wounded in a June 15 ambush,
bringing to four the number of Estonians killed here in the past two
years.
'It's hard, those incidents happened in the beginning of the
deployment, the contingent didn't get time to settle in,' the
commander of the 140-man force, Major Janno Mark, said after the
initial injuries.
'It was a shock for the company but I hope it also got them on the
right track and showed the need to maintain their combat drills,' he
added.
At the other end of the country, in the north-eastern Kunar
province, a small unit of Latvian troops also suffered that country's
first fatalities in Afghanistan. Two men died together with three
American and three Afghan soldiers when insurgents overran an
observation post in early May.
And one year ago, Lithuania lost a man killed in the central
province of Ghor when gunfire broke out as hundreds of people
protested over a US soldier's shooting of a Koran in Iraq.
For these relative newcomers to NATO - the three former Soviet
republics joined the western military alliance in 2004 as a buffer
against potential aggression from Russia - it is a matter of
principle to pitch in alongside the larger members in Afghanistan.
'We can't only consume security, we must provide security, that's
also the statement the politicians make when the public ask what we
are doing in Afghanistan and say we should bring the troops home,'
Mark said.
But in the current tough economic climate, support for this
expensive mission is dwindling in his country. While the majority of
the population supports membership of NATO, a January opinion poll
showed that only 30 per cent of Estonians back the Afghan
involvement, down from 35 per cent six months earlier.
Unaccustomed to taking casualties like the US or British forces,
each loss hits hard in this tiny country of 1.3 million people.
Hours after the death of Master Sergeant Allain Tikko, a 30-year
old father of two on his fourth overseas tour, government officials
in Tallinn said in a statement that this would 'not diminish
Estonia's firm desire to continue the Afghanistan mission.'
Describing Tikko as a 'courageous and capable fighter', it
stressed that the forces fighting in Afghanistan 'make grievous
sacrifices in the name of the security that we feel every hour of
every day in our own independent nation.'
Moreover, Estonia not only intends to maintain the military
presence but will still double it as planned to boost security during
Afghan presidential elections due in late August.
With more than 10,000 British, US and Danish troops deployed in
Helmand, Estonia's relatively small numerical contribution might to
some commentators seem more of a gesture of political goodwill than a
valuable military asset.
But with many of the Baltic troops on their second or third combat
tours, their British counterparts describe them as a useful resource
that is 'well trained, well equipped, well motivated and well led.'
'Hats off to them for coming down here and operating in Helmand,
which is one of the more dangerous parts of Afghanistan,' said Lt.
Col. Rupert Thorneloe, commander of the province's Battle Group
Centre South where the Estonians are located.
'NATO needs members who will sign up and do the full range of
tasks,' Thorneloe said.
USA
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