WHEN soldiers from the Afghan National Army (ANA) and 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment (Green Howards) recaptured the Afghanistan stronghold of Musa Qala it had the effect of pushing back Taliban forces into those based in nearby Sangin.

Scarborough soldier, 27-year-old Cpl Carl Peterson, was caught up in the fighting as he was training and mentoring members of the ANA.

He said: “It’s the outland of the Taliban and their main spiritual home. Musa Qala took a lot of the limelight from Sangin and the Taliban all came back there. We were ambushed from 25 metres away, as we were crossing open ground, by machine guns and rocket propelled grenades.”

Cpl Peterson added they had to use water-filled trenches for cover so they could make their escape and the task was made more difficult because he also had to look after members of the ANA who were with him.

He said: “We have to mentor the ANA and when you are mentoring you are not firing. It was like that for over an hour. No one was hit and two Taliban were found dead. We don’t know how many were wounded.”

In total, Cpl Peterson was in the Helmand province for two months. He said: “It was very hard. When you are mentoring the ANA you have to give up a lot of your safety. You have to get up and show them they need to move.

“Our camp was getting hit all the time. The forward operating base we were manning was getting hit with machine guns and grenades quite badly. Some days the Ghurkas were fighting and two of them got hit. The day after that an ANA vehicle got hit by a mine. There was one killed there.

“It affects you and at the same time we had a lad killed in Musa Qala. Obviously it upset the lads but we knew we still had a job to do. You crack on with your job.”

From The Scarborough Evening News on Monday, January 7, 2008.