The Taliban Were Out There - but so Was a Dying Dog ; Their Only Sanctuary Was 700 Miles Away

Summary

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Sergeant, I thought you might want to do something about this.' Mase, the Royal Marine who had called me to join him in his sand- bagged sentry post, or 'sangar', was pointing towards the barbed- wire road block 100 yards north of our isolated compound in the Afghan outpost of Now Zad.

The road block was designed to prevent a suicide bomber driving into our walls. A small, white, terrified-looking dog was trapped in it. The dog had a wire noose around its neck. Having broken free from whatever it had been tied to, it tried to run through our barrier, but the noose had caught on the barbed wire. The more it struggled, the tighter the noose became. The dog was slowly killing itself.

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Extract

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The Taliban Were Out There - but so Was a Dying Dog ; Their Only Sanctuary Was 700 Miles Away

The 100 yards that separated me from the dog was in no-man's- land. The obstacle was situated across the only 'real' road in this area of Helmand province, a single strip of tarmac that ran north to south for 400 yards. At one time shops had lined the road. Now, there was no one to be seen, and the fronts of the empty stores were a mess of twisted metal and broken wood; their walls peppered with bullet holes.

The network of alleyways leading off the road was notorious as a hiding place for Taliban fighters.

I wondered why this was happening to me, but I knew I couldn't walk away. I squeezed through the narrow slit at the front ofnarrow slit at the front of the sangar and on to the edge of the roof on which it was perched, then climbed down to the road. Everything was eerily quiet.

My heart racing, I ran at a crouch up the centre of the road. As I got closer the dog started to fight to free itself again. 'Chill, dog, I'm on your side,' I call...

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