A north Shropshire-based soldier fighting in Afghanistan has spoken of the challenges of living within striking distance of the Taliban.

Colour Sergeant Davey Smyth, of the Royal Irish Regiment based at Clive Barracks in Tern Hill, near Market Drayton, arrived in the country last month as part of Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team (OMLT) 3.

In his latest of a series of reports detailing experiences of daily life in the war-torn country, Colour Sergeant Smyth describes the events leading up to his arrival in Sangin and the ever-present threat of enemy attacks.

He said: “OMLT, and indeed Kandak 3 (a Kandak is an Afghan Battalion), are carrying out battle preparation for deployment to Sangin. Sangin is one of the major market towns in Helmand province and has a healthy-sized population.

“Sangin town is still very much full of Taliban, so the threat here is still very much alive. I left the rest of my OMLT behind and moved into Sangin.

“This was to enable us to have a footprint on the ground and to start taking over the patrol base locations prior to the main force arriving.

“The flight in was not as bad as I expected, this was due to the underslung LandRover we were carrying. Much to my relief, as flying isn¹t my strongest point, the pilots couldn’t throw it around as much as they would have liked.

“When we landed, we received a brief on the area and then awaited our lift out to our respective patrol bases. As we waited, the reality of the frontline was brought home to me with a suicide bomber attacking one of our friendly call signs. Luckily no-one was injured, either military or civilian.”

Colour Sergeant Smyth was taken to the Tangiers base. He added: “Tangiers is definitely the busiest patrol base in the area. They get attacked the most but they get good results, ranging in weapon and explosive finds to drug finds.”

By Andrew Rogers