SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan - Amid the eerie howl of mine detectors, Canadian soldiers prodded the dirt with knives and inched gingerly forward on their bellies Monday as they made their way toward a rusty bucket wired to a battery at the side of a dirt road in southern Afghanistan.
The suspected improvised explosive device, or roadside bomb, was reported by a local commander from the National Directorate of Security. It attracted a team of engineers from a forward operating base just outside this frontier outpost six kilometres from the Pakistan border.
It was unusual for the fact that it was completely unconcealed and well off to the side of the road -- two characteristics that rarely describe most IEDs in this perilous country.
Nonetheless, no one was taking any chances.
"It's here for a reason,'' said Sgt. Dave Camp, commander of a squadron of engineers attached to the Royal Canadian Dragoons, based in Petawawa, Ont.
"There is an ongoing challenge to try and watch and learn how it is we react to what they do ... I firmly believe that this is a test, and that we are being watched.''
As afternoon turned to night, the alarming wail of the squadron's mine detectors gave way to the siren song of the call to prayer from a nearby mosque, and reinforcements from the base set up a perimeter around the device to await an IED team dispatched from Kandahar Airfield, about 70 kilometres northwest of Spin Boldak.
It marked the end of a long day and the start of a long night for the Canadians, who have been putting down roots in Spin Boldak since Saturday to establish a major presence inside an all-but-abandoned forward operating base on the outskirts of town, which sits right on Pakistan's doorstep.
"A lot of the logistics support and manpower support for the Taliban have been on the other side of the border, and they come across to Afghanistan using a number of different routes,'' said Maj. Steve Graham, commander of RCD's reconnaissance squadron.
"The intent is if we come and sit ourselves along the border, and try to interdict them along the border and basically deny them the ease with which they've been moving across the border, that will have a positive effect elsewhere in the province.''
Until now, Spin Boldak has been a part of Afghanistan where the Taliban has been able to travel largely unobstructed to other parts of the country where they want to fight, such as Kandahar city and the Panjwaii district to the west, Graham said.
"This is not where they want to fight us, this is where they want to be able to move safely and easily through,'' he said.
"We're going to come and get in their face now, we're going to stand up along the border and stand up to the whole district, and find out where these routes are, these ratlines they've been using up across the border.''
Elsewhere Monday, a Canadian patrol came under attack in the Panjwaii district west of Kandahar city. Insurgents using small arms and rocket-propelled grenades engaged the Canadians near the village of Howz e Madad. There were no Canadian casualties, a military spokesman said at Kandahar Airfield.
In the Spin Boldak area, the day began with an bang when an Afghan National Army vehicle ran over an IED just outside the base -- the first encountered here since Canadians began arriving on the weekend.
No one was injured in the blast, but Camp said the timing of the two IED encounters suggest the Taliban is acknowledging the arrival of the Canadians and trying not only to disrupt operations, but to gather intelligence of their own.
"We just arrived, and all of a sudden, this,'' Camp said. "Just the way it's placed and everything else like that leads me to believe that it's a deliberate attempt to see how we are going to deal with it.''
Had they been watching the base earlier in the day, the insurgents would have witnessed the arrival of some awesome military muscle: M777 Howitzers, the mightiest piece of artillery in the Afghan theatre, dangling from the bottom of Chinook helicopters.
The firepower -- accompanied by B Troop of the 2nd Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, also based in Petawawa -- is on hand to provide support to Canadian patrols as they venture out into the Spin Boldak district, Graham said.
"If we get into a position where we run into trouble and need help, that's exactly why they're here. Is that going to happen? It's hard to say,'' he said.
"If those guns come down here and don't fire a round for three months, that's not a failure, that's a good thing, that means we haven't had any problems, haven't had any issues and we've completed our mission without having to fire any rounds.''
On the other hand, whether the Taliban decides to stand and fight to reclaim their routes or to search for alternatives, Graham and his soldiers will be succeeding in their bid to disrupt their progress.
In either event, it's nice to know there's some heavy-duty support available, he grinned.
"Artillery's one of those things where I don't really care where the guns are, as long as when we need them, the rounds fall. That's all that matters.''
