Afghanistan axe attack victim promoted to captain
CTV.ca News Staff
The Canadian soldier who is in serious condition after he was struck with an axe during a meeting with tribal elders in Afghanistan has been promoted to captain.
Lt. Trevor Greene was struck on the back of the neck Saturday during a sit-down shura meeting with tribal elders on Saturday. The Vancouver, B.C. reservist, journalist and published author was taken to Germany for treatment Sunday morning in serious condition.
"He was promoted to captain, which is a promotion he was entitled to anyway and he went on the mission before the promotion came through, so they gave it to him this morning before he got on that flight to Lanstuhl, Germany, the U.S. military hospital," said CTV's Lisa LaFlamme.
"He is in serious but stable condition," she told CTV Newsnet.
The "barbaric" attack has stunned Canadian forces at the Kandahar Airfield base, but hasn't affected their commitment to the task at hand, Laflamme said.
The shura meetings are an important part of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan. They provide the opportunity for military personnel to sit down with tribal leaders and discuss their concerns in an informal setting, in order to build trust.
But the meetings, as they have been conducted so far, leave the troops vulnerable because they typically remove their helmets and lay their guns down beside them in a gesture of goodwill.
The policy may now have to be revisited.
"This morning when we asked Col. Tom Putt (Canadian deputy commander in Afghanistan) will there be changes, he said the one thing he could say for sure is these shuras are a key element of the Canadian mission here. It is absolutely essential that they engage the locals and build that trust and help them rebuild their communities. It's critical," LaFlamme said.
"What they will be looking at however, is their procedure and how these are conducted and whether or not perhaps in the future they'll leave the helmet on or the gun closer, this kind of thing. But they are 100 per cent sure they will not stop the shuras."
Capt. Kevin Schamuhn, the platoon commander, described what took place during the attack.
"The guy lifted up the axe, and called out Allah Akbar, the jihad prayer, before they do suicides, and he swung the axe into Trevor's head," Schamuhn told CTV News on Saturday.
Canadian soldiers shot and killed the attacker, who was in his 20s.
Once the attack on Green happened, Schamuhn said: "There was a whole bunch of explosions and a pretty heavy volume of fire. It turns out we were under fire from the south of the river, which is on the adjacent bank."
Later, another insurgent attempted to throw a grenade at the troops but was unsuccessful.
After the firefight, Afghan and Canadian soldiers found all fighting-age men had deserted the village, and only women and children and the elderly were still present.
LaFlamme said the soldiers believed Greene had been killed by the attack until a medic inspected him and found that he still had vital signs.
Well deserved!!!!! ;D
