Rocket fired at Canadian embassy residence in Afghan capital - Guard hurt

[Korus]

He's wearing a Canadian Flag... doesn't look to be too much of a local thing to do IMHO.

Could just mean he's protecting a Canadian isntallation. I've seen the Afghan Security Forces personnel around here wearing vests and flags that look suspiciously similar whilst on gate guard.

As for rocket attacks.. It's annoying when they space them out, so just as you're beginning to fall asleep.. *BANG* another one hits. And I echo KevinB in that they are not accurate at all.

Bah, Acorn beet me to it..

 

[Big Red]

Thanks for satisfying my curiosity.

 

[George Wallace]

As for rocket attacks.. It's annoying when they space them out, so just as you're beginning to fall asleep.. *BANG* another one hits. And I echo KevinB in that they are not accurate at all.

That is called "Pychological Warfare"

Bah, Acorn beet me to it..

Are you beet red or Acorn?  

 

[paracowboy]

Yeah, he looks caucasian, but urban Afghanis can vary widely in appearance, can't they?

yeah, but I never saw one that old look that white. And Kev pretty much answered it.

 

[DG-41]

Any idea as to the model/size of the rockets being fired?

Are we talking RPG here, or something bigger?

DG

 

[George Wallace]

There are a lot of BM-21 rockets out there.  Fired from improvised launchers.  There are a few videos on line that show them in action.  Very scary.  You will also see why they are not very accurate, if you find one of those videos.  Rockets propped up in trees, remotely fired are not too accurate.

 

[Mortar guy]

I can assure you that the guy in the picture with the ball cap is Afghan. More specifically he is Tajik - they tend to look more caucasian than the Pashtuns, Hazara, Uzbeks etc. He works for a company called SSI, a private security firm that does 'outer cordon' security on the embassy and other Canadian residences in the Wazir Akhbar Khan district. These guys protect my house too and I can say that they are very checked out. They always have their weapons at the ready and are very vigilant (second only to the Gurkhas who guard the US Embassy). Most of them are former soldiers and all of them receive decent training before working for the company (SSI is the name of the company - reference the ball cap). They wear Canadian flags becuase they are gaurding a Canadian installation - pointe final. If anyone has anymore questions, you can PM me and I'll try to answer.

Pro Patria.

MG

 

[paracowboy]

like I said, I been wrong before.

 

[DG-41]

Yowsa!

That BM-21 is no dinky little rocket; it's a 122mm with a 20k range (when fired from the proper launcher)

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/row/bm-21.htm

I haven't found anythin on the CEP for it, but supposedly it is pretty big, which I assume to be ~700m or so. So you might hit the right grid square.

Even so... that'd leave a hell of a mark.

DG

 

[Korus]

Are you beet red or Acorn? 

I  guess that would be me and my lack of spell-checking/grammer

 

[George Wallace]

I haven't found anythin on the CEP for it, but supposedly it is pretty big, which I assume to be ~700m or so. So you might hit the right grid square.

Even so... that'd leave a heck of a mark.

DG

Whoa Nelly.....A BM-21 Bty will level a grid square quite easily, but one single 122mm rocket won't do much (Not a Grid Sq) in that sense.  Remember, a BM-21 has 40 of these rockets in each 'pack'.

 

[DG-41]

Yeah, but it should be more or less equivelent to a 122mm arty shell in terms of explosive payload. That's a hell of a bang.

I wan't claiming that a single rocket would flatten a grid square George.

DG

 

[buzgo]

I can't remember the calibre of the rocket that hit Camp Warehouse in 2003, whether it was 107 or 122... It made a big BANG but I was surprised at the small amout of damage it did. It hit a sea container and it seemed like it was the physical force of the rocket itself hitting the metal can that caused the damage. There didn't seem to be a big explosion of any kind. This happened right next to a tent with people in it and only one guy (a Weatherhaven contractor) got slightly injured.

 

[KevinB]

Rockets have fuel as part of the payload - as it burn off there goes the payload... Arty shells are 100% payload.

MG - quite willing to accept that - the guy looks like a spitting image of someone I've done a course with.
  not sure I'd call the guards checked out though.

Part of the issue with accuray is your local jihadist that uses a rocket aint all that bright and the it goes thataway system of aiming.  IF they had a real launcher and knowledge of how to emplot it - we would have a serious bad dad - but hadji would be dead within a few seconds if he had a fixed firing platform...  I guess they split the differecne that living was better than hitting anyone they intended on.

 

[Mortar guy]

   not sure I'd call the guards checked out though.

I'd love to know what you're basing this assessment on. Have you seen these guys before? Granted they are not up to Canadian Infantry standards but compared to the other private security guards I have seen around town (and the ANA and ANP), they are checked out. I also can't imagine why any former western serviceman would want to work for SSI as they pay their guards about $8 a day - a decent wage for Afghanistan but hardly worth coming here for if you are a former British Medic! There are lots of Blackwater and DynCorp jobs that pay 100 times that amount for former western soldiers.

As for the rocket, it was most likely a Russian Katyusha or Chinese Type 63 107mm rocket (rocket of choice around here). As a number of people have stated, they are not really aimed and in a lot of cases are just leaned up against a pile of rocks or some other crude launch platform that points them in the general direction of their target. They are remotely launched or are launched on timers so the firers don't get caught or CB'd.

MG

P.S. Everything I am writing here is OSINT and not classified. As for the type of rocket, that is only my educated guess after having seen the crater.

 

[Slim]

Blackwater and Dyncorp do not hire Canadians...Unless that has changed rrecently.

But as of earlier this year they were hiring US only...And in the case of Blackwater it was SF or marine FR folks with time in the weeds only.

Please feel free to add info if mine is either outdated or inaccurate. This is from first hand sourses but its been awhile since I tried to get 'over there.'

Cheers

Slim

 

[Big Red]

Blackwater and Dyncorp do not hire Canadians...Unless that has changed rrecently.

But as of earlier this year they were hiring US only...And in the case of Blackwater it was SF or marine FR folks with time in the weeds only.

Please feel free to add info if mine is either outdated or inaccurate. This is from first hand sourses but its been awhile since I tried to get 'over there.'

Cheers

Slim

Both companies have non-Americans working for them to include a few Canadians.   Most BW guys are not SF or Force. BW is not considered 'special' by anyone but themselves. They have everyone from the bodyguard with no mil/LE, to the po-dunk Sheriff, to the Tier One operator and everything in between.   The vast majority are great guys, but a few are misguided as to what thier mission is.

 

[Slim]

Both companies have non-Americans working for them to include a few Canadians.   Most BW guys are not SF or Force. They have everyone from the bodyguard with no mil/LE, to the po-dunk Sheriff, to the Tier One operator, just like most companies.

OK...Sounds like I had some bad info.

I tried to get on with DynCorp and after uite a run-around I got back that they donnot hire non-us people?!

Same with BW.

Thanks for the update.

Cheers

Slim

 

[Big Red]

Dyncorp has a non-US recruiter that I believe is based out of England. They also have a recruiter in New Zealand. I think they have quite a backlog of non-Americans right now on their books.

You are right, many of the contracts that the big coys like BW, Dyn, 3C have are restricted to US citizens only.  But they sometimes have other gigs that don't have these restrictions.