AAN Frontline - "Contact at Shwasana"

BOOTS ON THE GROUND AT SHWASANA

RAF Chinooks touched down in the scrub north of Shwasana shortly after first light, putting British troops on the ground in a town that has been shook by recent conflict. The airframes were gone inside ninety seconds, leaving a platoon group drawn from 2 PARA and 1 R IRISH moving south into the built-up area on foot. Both units form part of the United Kingdom Task Force - Ugandan Congo Assistance Force, operating under 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team. For the better part of an hour the mood was cautiously ordinary. Section commanders spoke to shopkeepers, elders and farmers, asking the same questions a dozen different ways: who has been through here, when, how many, and where did they go. The answers were guarded with some indicating armed men that had passed through days earlier, moving north and east. One soldier told this correspondent that silence in a town like this is itself a form of intelligence.

THE TREELINE OPENS UP

That silence explained itself as the force moved back out towards the northern outskirts. The first burst came from a treeline to the east, and within moments the contact had spread across several hundred metres, with sustained machine-gun fire and RPGs directed at the lead sections. This was no harassing shoot. The volume and coordination suggested prepared positions and an enemy that had waited for the patrol to commit itself in the open.

Overhead, a British Army Apache came onto station and began working the treeline, its 30mm cannon audible across the valley in short, deliberate bursts as ground callsigns talked it onto target. Under that cover the force extracted in bounds, and by mid-afternoon the last elements were clear. Task force sources report no British fatalities, though figures are still being confirmed. What is beyond doubt is that the March 23 Movement retains both the will and the capability to stand and fight here. This has been Thomas Truffle, Africa Correspondent for AAN World News.