Downtime

AFTER a month reclining in the relative luxury of Lashkar Gah (showers, good food, a proper mattress and all that sort of thing), the principal town of Helmand, I'm now the proud owner of a day off - a pretty unusual occurrence in this part of the world.
My time as a liaison officer has been pretty hectic, but very educational. It's the hub of everything that goes on, so it was quite an eye-opener. I don't think I've ever seen so many colonels (British, Afghan, American, Canadian, Danish, and even Estonian) in my life!
It's been reported in the news quite a bit that there were a few heated exchanges with the Taliban around "Lash Vegas" over the past couple of weeks, but their attacks were pretty ineffective, especially when you add the Army Air Corps' Apache attack helicopters into the mix. The sound of one of their 30mm cannon roaring into life definitely makes you not want to be on the receiving end. I think the Taliban must feel the same way, because they gave up pretty quickly.
But 90 per cent of the time, it's a relatively peaceful place. The sound of the normal everyday hustle and bustle of any large town is distinctive and plentiful in Lash. At the weekend, children fly brightly-patterned kites high above the low, flat roofs of the city. Taxis and motorised rickshaws come and go, car horns hoot and the cries of market traders in the bazaar fill the air. It's quite satisfying to see that there can be some sort of normality amid the fighting and the chaos that it invariably brings.

Having now escaped from Lashkar Gah (and as an infantryman, the feeling of being released from a desk job to go out "into the weeds" is a great relief. So, I've got 24 hours back in Bastion to "re-cock" and get ready to go out into the field. I'm due to meet up with my team and go out to one of the patrol bases scattered up and down the Helmand river.
I'm not going to pretend that it's going to be a walk in the park: these bases are pretty austere (another reason I plan, during my day off, to eat as much food as possible and take about, say, 10 showers), often consisting of something akin to a mud hut surrounded by a barbed wire fence.
It's proper frontier stuff.
The other problem we're going to have to contend with (apart from bad men who want to shoot at us) is the weather. Up until about a week ago, one could quite comfortably walk about in shorts and a T-shirt at all hours of the day, but the temperature at night and in the mornings has taken a notiecable plunge. Sweaters and the occasional "wooly pully" are beginning to be sported. By the end of November, it's going to rain and rain heavily at that. Then we can look forward to a cold winter - and by cold, I mean down to -20C at night, and not getting much above freezing until elevenses. Lunchtime al fresco dining should still be possible though.
I've been burying myself in reports, pictures and maps of the area we're going to, getting orders from my boss and planning how we are going to deal with this little part of Helmand that's going to be our responsibility. The job's going to be doubly interesting, because we're going to have to take into account how the Afghan National Army want to do things as well!
Goodbye until next time.

Can't stand the heat? Get out of the kitchen

CHARGING forward, the desert sand blowing in my face, dust finding its way into everything, my breath sounding loud and unnatural through my ear defence, loud and rasping through the dryness of my throat, my body armour and webbing hanging heavy from my shoulders and waist, sweat pouring down my back and forehead and the heat constant and unrelenting.
Down, crawl into position, take aim with my rifle, fire off a few shots while the other fire team zig-zags its way forward to the next bit of cover, crawl, up charge, down. Then crawling up the bank, grenade out of pouch, pin out, hurling it towards the enemy, taking cover and BANG! Rifles to the fore, pouring rounds into the bunker. MAN DOWN, MAN DOWN! Someone's hit. We pour more shots toward the enemy, some of us grabbing the casualty and hauling him back towards safety, a long, lung-bursting half-run with the dead weight of the injured man suspended between us before we're out of contact, getting into cover again and watching for the enemy, who may follow to try and finish us off.
Fortunately, our enemy on that day was wooden targets, although the rest of it was real. Since arriving in Afghanistan, we've been involved in a pretty intense training package to get us ready to go out around this hot and dusty country. We've had briefing after briefing on the enemy, on what to do if we find an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), on security, on all manner of things which make up the complexities of a modern war being fought halfway around the world.
And we've been on the ranges practising our tactics, firing our weapons, throwing grenades, learning about the weapons which the Afghan National Army uses and acclimatising. Lots of acclimatising.
The temperature is in the high 30s, not as hot as it gets in the height of the summer but enough to make an Englishman, used to maybe 30 degrees tops sweat a bit! The sun really beats down from a completely blue sky. I saw a cloud last Friday, the first for a week. But when the weather starts to break at the end of October, I'm promised I'll have all the rain and cold I want.
It's a country of many contrasts. The extremes of summer and winter, the sudden change from desert to "green zone" as you fly over the River Helmand and the cultivated areas either side of it - much like the Nile in Egypt - the mountains to the north of Helmand Province which jump out of the desert like huge craggy monoliths.
We are all very relieved to actually get here and start to get on with the job, despite the best efforts of the RAF to delay us us much as possible (I told you I'd complain about them - six hours of kicking our heels at RAF Brize Norton).
I managed to go and visit my colleagues from Corunna Company in their mini-camp inside Bastion the other day, and they are all in good spirits. Some of them have already gone out to the FOBs (forward operating bases), so they are happy to be getting stuck in.
I'm due to deploy with my team to a patrol base sometime in the next few weeks, which I'm very excited about. I'm currently a liaison officer between my battalion, which trains the ANA, and one of the other battalions here in Helmand, helping co-ordinate operations between the two.
It's all exciting stuff and is really opening my eyes to the complexity of this operation. Sure, I knew that there were lots of strings that needed to be pulled together to make an army function effectively (let alone two armies, with a language barrier thrown in), but until you've seen it in action it's hard to comprehend how big a machine it is.
But it's the end of another long, hot day and I'm going to shower away the dust and relax in an air-conditioned room with a film on, while I still can!

Goodbye to Blighty

The next time I write will be from Afghanistan. It seems like a lot longer than three months that I left civvy street behind to become a full-time soldier, but it's also flown by. Anyway, at last me and the other soldiers of Corunna Company and 1st Battalion, The Rifles are ready to go. Training's complete, kit is packed and all we now have to do is throw ourselves upon the mercy of the RAF to get us out to Helmand.
It's about a six-hour flight (although it could take a lot longer, because just like Heathrow Airport, there's a lot of waiting around involved), which is a long time for those of us who are on our first tour to sit in an aeroplane seat wondering what's going to greet us when we get to Camp Bastion. We'll spend a few days acclimatising before we get on with the job - a friend of mine currently out in Helmand Province tells me it is scorchingly hot there at the moment - so we'll be fully settled in by the time we go out on the ground.
It's pretty exciting, and even though I'm a little nervous I can't wait to get on with things.
Even better, I've just found out that I'm being made acting Captain for the tour, which has got me puffing my chest out and standing a couple of inches taller. And of course, Captain sounds much more dangerous and dashing than Lieutenant!
So here's looking forward to posting from Afghanistan, hopefully with plenty of interesting stuff to tell you about. And a better suntan. See you on the other side.

Medical notes Part 2

a) My Achilles is feeling much better thanks to the horse pills handed out by the medical centre.

b) The malaria tablets are VILE.

c) The vaccination has given me man flu. Please send sympathy!

In the spotlight

The BBC has published a story about Corunna Company's deployment to Afghanistan - click on the link below to view it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7601838.stm

If you are a Facebook user, you can keep up to date with progress by looking at the group "Support Corunna Company in Afghanistan"

Medical notes

Less than eight hours to go until I have to start taking my anti-malaria tablets, in case Taliban-trained mosquitos come and bite me in the night. Apparently the pills make you go mad and bald, which for me is just hastening the process. And I've been stuck with more needles to vaccinate me against some sort of screaming heebie-jeebie disease or other. Oh, and I'm on super-strength painkillers because the doctor tells me I've got titus omni vitus or something in one of my Achilles tendons. Apparently that means I've got an inflamed sheath. But apparently it will go down in a couple of weeks, so I will be fighting fit, hurrah!

Nose back to the grindstone

THREE weeks’ holiday, like I’ve already said, was a bit of a luxury, but it was surprising how much I needed it after two and a half months of non-stop activity. It was great to be able to wake up in the morning (ok, sometimes the afternoon!) and not have to worry about anything. No parades, no cleaning filthy kit and weapons, to timings to stick to, just plain old relaxation.
Even so, it was still a busy holiday. I managed to get around the country and see quite a few of my relatives, and spend some time with my girlfriend. What was really good was that she has passed her driving test, so I could get her to chauffeur me around for a change!
It wasn’t all great fun though, because sadly my grandmother died after a long illness, which unfortunately meant that I got to see even more of my family and other relatives, but not in circumstances which I’d really wanted to.
But now I’m back on duty and everyone is ready for the flight. In fact, we’ve mostly got to the stage where we just want to get on with it rather than waiting. All of our training is complete, down to the final few briefings on the situation in Helmand, the latest drills and tactics we need to know and all our kit packed and stowed for what’s likely to be a six-hour flight into Kandahar before we move on to Camp Bastion.
The anticipation is certainly mounting and there’s an atmosphere of determination and even some excitement around camp, that we finally – after months of training – get to go and do the job. How do I feel about it? Well, I’ve been experiencing mixed emotions. I think that after seeing home and my girlfriend and family I’d been feeling some trepidation about it, because as we all know it’s ain’t a pleasant place, but as soon as I got back to camp and was able to get into the swing of things again, all that evaporated and now I’m champing at the bit. And of course, the British Army is the best in the world, so there’s nothing to worry about! By the way, my kit did fit into those bags in the end.

Explosion in the quartermaster's stores

It might still be another week and a half until I have to report back for duty, but when I woke up this morning I thought it would be a really good idea to start packing my kit.
After forcing open the door to my spare room, my first thought was to call the police and report a burglary, because the great big pile of desert camouflage-coloured stuff lying all over the place looked exactly like the title of this post, a massive, unfolded, mish-mash of trousers, shirts, combat jackets, boots, string, water bottles and all the other assorted paraphernalia which the British soldier gets thrown at them in the QM's store, rather like those scenes in the films.
After forcing the door shut again, going away, drinking several cups of coffee, reading the paper from cover to cover, going out for a run, having lunch, reading the paper again and generally using all the tactics one employs to avoid having to tackle a big job, I reluctantly returned to the spare room, in the vain hope that in my absence, the magic tidying up elves had done their job.
Alas, they had completely failed to help me, so I am writing this while the European Army Surplus Mountain sits there, staring at me in a challenging sort of way.
Suggestions on a postcard please, as to how I can fit this lot into a rucksack and holdall.

We're all going on a summer holiday

I don't think I've ever had three weeks' holiday from work before! The only problem is that after the intensity of everything that's happened since I mobilised in June, I'm a bit worried that I might get a bit bored... So I'm planning to fill my time with catching up on all those things that I just haven't had the time to do for the last two months (seeing my family being the most important one of them!).
It's also giving me time to reflect on what we've done, what we've achieved and the size of the job ahead of us. The thing is, while I always expected to be involved in operations either in Afghanistan or possibly Iraq when I joined the Territorial Army, I never expected to be involved in the role I've now been given, that of training the Afghan National Army. In some ways, it's one of the most important roles the British Army is performing there, because we can fight the Taliban and charities and aid organisations can hand out food, tools and equipment all day long, but if there is nothing there to take over the security of the country when our work is eventually done, then things could return very quickly to square one.
That sounds like a lot of self-praise! The best bit of news Corunna Company has had is that the powers that be have been very impressed with our efforts over the past few weeks, so it looks like we might get used for some more interesting tasks away from Camp Bastion.
In any case, we're all looking forward to our leave, time to recharge our batteries ahead of a long flight out to Afghanistan and the real beginning of our adventures.

Post-exercise admin

I reckon the vast majority of people would shudder at the thought of wearing the same underwear for days on end, washing out of a bowl of cold water and eating beans with every meal. Well, that's what going on a training exercise is usually like, but this one was different. Right across the Army's massive Salisbury Plain training area, the Royal Engineers had been busy recreating a series of Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) for us to use for our mission rehearsal training.
Now that meant food cooked by Army chefs, solar showers (a bag you hang up in the sun to heat the water) and cot beds, so we had a pretty comfortable time of things. We even had some simulated Afghan National Army soldiers to work with to practice how we're going to mentor them.
But what I wasn't quite prepared for was the sweaty, horrible experience of wearing Osprey body armour. It's bloody good stuff (in that it will hopefully keep me alive when I'm in Afghanistan), but it is basically two large, heavy plates strapped fore and aft. It's bulky, it weighs a lot and it makes you perspire freely. Or sweat like a dog, depending on how you look at it. That's why I'm about half the size I was when I began the exercise.
It's been an interesting two weeks, settling in to my new unit, the 1st Battalion the Rifles, meeting new people and getting used to how they do business. Of course, I've seen assorted members of Corunna Company cutting about the area, and at one point I even caught a fleeting glimpse of one of my North Devon Journal colleagues, Rupert Sims, interviewing a Royal Engineers captain.
Next week should be far less frenetic, as I'm going to be learning Pashtu, the language most commonly spoken in Helmand. Despite only having a week to pick up the basics, it's going to be useful to at least say hello to the locals and inquire after their health, their opinions on the weather and stuff about the pen of my grandfather's aunt (unless language training has come a long way since I left school). "Has anyone seen any Taliban?" may also be a useful phrase. It's pretty difficult really, because the usual foreign lingo picked up by us Brits is something along the lines of "beer and chips please", neither of which we are likely to be using in and around the towns and villages of Southern Afghanistan.
But after that, I've got three weeks' leave, so I'll be travelling around the country visiting relatives and friends, packing my kit and preparing for the off, sometime in mid-September. But complaining about flying RAF is something I'll save for another time.

Poised for action

I've only just realised how long it's been since my last post - more than two weeks! But what an exciting two weeks it's been. First of all, we carried out a four-day exercise in Norfolk, which was designed to put us in situations we might encounter "in theatre" (that is, in Helmand). The most difficult aspect of it was that in Afghanistan, we may well have to switch from fighting the war to dealing with civilians in a peacekeeping-type role and back again at the drop of a hat, which means we've all got to be very switched on to what's happening around us. But the exercise, in which we worked with lots of other branches of the Army, from the cavalry to the engineers and the artillery, was brilliant and we were all buzzing by the end, which was a company-level operation to clear an area of woodland of "Taliban" fighters. I've never seen such a wet, boggy, muddy and desnse bit of countryside in my life, and trying to walk along normally was difficult enough, let alone fighting our way through it carrying weapons, webbing, radios and all the other bits and pieces we need! Suffice it to say that no-one, from the most senior officer to the most junior rifleman, got away clean and dry.
Last week, we descended on the spiritual home of the infantry, the army training area in the Brecon Beacons. Wet, muddy, usually windy and often with sideways rain, it's the sort of place where you go expecting to get soaked and it's a bonus if you don't. It sorts the men from the boys.
We had five days of live field firing, where we practise fighting with live ammunition and grenades. This is the pinnacle of infantry training: it's realistic, tough and it begins the process of inocluating us to the volume, chaos and stomach-jolting power of explosions, bullets flying around and the exhaustion of battle. And it's awesome fun! The exercise culminated on Friday with live platoon attacks up a steep-sided valley, with targets popping up to simulate enemy positions. Crawling through a river with a weapon, webbing and a rather large radio is no joke, but you come out of the other end really buzzing.
So this weekend, we've been relaxing over a barbecue and a few beers and preparing for the next exercise, which is two weeks on Salisbury Plain, with thousands of troops rehearsing our mission in Helmand Province. It's going to be yet another busy time, but it will mean that we are good to go.
Sadly though, this is my last weekend with Corunna Company. I and three other soldiers from the company have been selected to join 1st Battalion The Rifles, one of our regiment's regular battalions, to work in a team which helps train the Afghan National Army. While it's a wrench to leave the guys behind (we've all become very close in the past five weeks), this task is an exciting new challenge which we're really looking forward to. So tonight I'm off to Chepstow to meet my new colleagues and start preparing to help the Afghans develop their learning of how to protect their country.

Home on the ranges

ONE of the most important skills for a soldier is shooting, so we’ve been getting lots of time on the ranges over the past week and a half, starting with our personal weapon, the SA80 rifle, and moving up to the big guns: light, medium and heavy machine guns and grenade launchers. Because we fire our rifles so much in the course of our training, it’s always exciting for us to get to grips with the bigger weapons and the lads and lasses of Corunna Company have been enjoying this longer period of skill at arms training. It began with a week on the ranges at Salisbury Plain before we moved to Kent for more specialised training, which included our first real exercise.
The scenario is simple: my platoon of three sections of riflemen was tasked to occupy a building which replicated a Forward Operating Base of the type we may occupy in Afghanistan. We had to perform a reconnaissance, occupy the building and then fight off a series of Taliban “attacks”.
Although the Taliban fighters are only metal pop-up targets, and the incoming enemy fire is just sound effects and smoke, the realism of the exercise was a brilliant test of not just my command skills but also the shooting skills of my riflemen, the skills of my three section commanders (Corporals who are in charge of seven other soldiers) and the organisational skills of my Platoon Serjeant.
It’s very intense, very noisy, very hot and great fun! When the smoke and dust finally cleared and the range safety staff called a halt to the exercise, we had knocked down 551 targets (miles ahead of the other platoons, I was pleased to find out!) and we were “threadders” – absolutely knackered. I looked at my watch and we’d only been in the building for an hour and 20 minutes – it felt like hours and hours. It just goes to show how fierce and fast our operations in Afghanistan can be. It was a wake-up call to all of us that what we’re going halfway round the world to do is pretty serious stuff!
This week, we’re going to Norfolk for a four-day exercise which will rehearse us in more operational scenarios, both defending buildings and on mobile operations on foot and in vehicles, preparing us to face the task in hand. Although it’s hard, intense work, everyone is having the time of their lives – even if we are only getting a few hours’ sleep each night!

A weekend off!

I'm writing this post from the comfort of my living room after a very, very long lie in. Our Officer Commanding sent us home last night for a well-earned rest after a week on the shooting ranges on Salisbury Plain.
It's been hard work and long days, but every member of Corunna Company has now been well practised in using most of the weapons we will have at our disposal in Afghanistan, from our personal weapon, the SA80 rifle, to the beast that is the .50-calibre heavy machine gun, which fires a slug of lead the size of a man's thumb further than two kilometres. It's quite an impressive weapon, but it's jolly heavy - almost 70kg when you include all the bits and pieces attached to it.

But for the time being, we're all at home relaxing, catching up with all the domestic things which we've been removed from since we mobilised - bills and laundry, mostly!
We form up again on Sunday for a long drive east for more range work, with the tempo and intensity of our training increasing all the time.

On a more serious note, we're now into territory where the emotion of becoming a full-time soldier comes into play. Most of the lads who haven't been on operations before have never spent more than two weeks continuously in uniform, and for some of them it's tough. Luckily, the comradeship and general matey larking about that squaddies love is coming into play. One or two of my troops have already privately admitted to me that they are missing home and their wives, partners and children, but the support they all give each other is phenomenal. The Army is one of those odd places: filled with very macho types, but the freedom with which they share their emotions with each other when the going gets tough is quite touching.

The feeling in Corunna Company is one of excitement and anticipation: everyone is buzzing about the training we've done. There are plenty more challenges to come, and some experienced members of the battalion have been giving lectures on what we can expect to come across in theatre. It's a bit like looking at someone's holiday snaps, but with the knowledge that we're going on the package tour soon and we're being told about all the problems with the hotel in advance!

So with all this new knowledge sloshing around in my tired brain, I'm going to have another cup of coffee and finish washing my socks. Back to the coalface on Sunday!

The end of the beginning

THE mobilisation period is over. On Thursday morning we crossed our final hurdle before beginning our pre-deployment training, the Combat Fitness Test. Two hours, eight miles and 25 kilos of kit, including our body armour, helmets and weapons. It sounds gruelling, but it’s the basic standard every infantryman must pass to prove that they can go on to more arduous training and are fit to go on operations.
I always thought that the Midlands were a series of gently rolling slopes and pleasant valleys, but the Physical Training Instructors have sought out the steepest slopes they can find, and guess what? Up we went! It was good fun though, even if that sounds slightly masochistic!
With all our training tests out of the way and “all the boxes ticked”, we have now moved to Salisbury Plain for the start of training proper. Over the next week, we’ve got a pretty exciting live firing package lined up on the ranges around the Plain, which is the largest military training area in the country. We’re going to fire all sorts of weapons, from machine guns to grenade launchers, and first thing tomorrow a very large truck with lots and lots of ammunition on board will arrive for us to use. Admittedly, we’re going to have to unload it all, but everyone in Corunna Company is looking forward to the week’s activities.
Our Officer Commanding and Company Serjeant Major have just returned from a “recce” of Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, which will give us an even better picture of the task facing us.
The company has also had to deal with the sad news of the deaths of several Army personnel in the last week. It’s never easy hearing about the deaths of some of our colleagues, and naturally our thoughts go out to the families of every serviceman and woman who is injured or killed in the line of duty. It’s one of the tough realities of what we do, but it has made every man and woman in Corunna Company even more determined to do a thoroughly professional job and contribute in some small way to bringing peace and stability to a part of the world which desperately needs it.
Looking on the bright side, next weekend we get to home for a couple of days – and it’s the 6th Battalion Officers’ Mess summer ball, so it will be a great chance to catch up with some friends and let my hair down!
I think I’ve earned a pint (or two) after a couple of pretty intensive weeks, so I’m off to the bar for a couple of “scoops” – and I’ll write again soon!

A hectic introduction to full-time army life

ONLY seven days, but already it feels like I've been in uniform for a long time - it's been amazing how quickly everyone in Corunna Company has made the transition from civilian to soldier.
Of course, we're only at the beginning and there are a hundred and one things to organise - everything from getting desert boots that fit to the complexities of organising our training, getting the company running smoothly and all of us learning how each other works.
This week, we have been going through the system of making the transition to being soldiers, so in the past few days I've filled in more forms than I care to think about, been given three bags full of kit and equipment which I will need in Afghanistan, had my teeth examined, had a very thorough medical examination which involved uncomfortably careful scrutiny of body parts which I won't mention on a family website, sat for some time with a pay clerk making sure I'm getting what I'm owed when I'm owed it and - a stark reminder of some of the realities of conflict - had my respirator (or gas mask) tested.
There is no threat of being gassed by the Taliban, but the respirator test is pretty vital - and quite comical. One dons the respirator, is plugged into a computer and stands in a tent while the Staff Sergeant outside give you commands to move your head in odd directions while you stand above a candle. Slightly surreal, but it gives you confidence that a very important bit of kit works!
Once the day's work is done, there is finally a bit of time to sort out my personal "admin" - get some laundry done and phone home before (in about five minutes' time) collapsing into bed ready for the next day, which includes the moment everyone grumbles about but secretly quite enjoys: the personal fitness test. We will do press-ups, sit-ups and a 1.5-mile run, all to a set standard.
After that, it's more lessons and weapon handling tests before we go on the rifle ranges this weekend to shoot our weapons test, proving that we're worthy of the name of Riflemen, and beginning our training proper for taking on the challenge of Helmand Province.

The last day at my desk

Today is Friday, June 6, and it's the last day that I'll be spending at my desk at the North Devon Journal for quite some time, because on Monday I become a full-time soldier training to go to Afghanistan.

It's going to be a culture shock: although I've been in the Territorial Army since the end of 2004, you can keep yourself going through wet, horrible training weekends on Salisbury Plain or in the Brecon Beacons by consoling yourself with the thought that in less than 48 hours, a warm shower, a hot meal and a comfortable bed await you.

But now, I'm facing the prospect of several months of early mornings, late nights, hard physical work, sleep deprivation and all the pressure and stress of doing the job for real.

Why put myself through it? Imagine training in your civilian job for three years and never putting it into practice. It would make you feel like a fraud. Being given the opportunity to go out and serve my country is something I've wanted to do ever since I first decided to join, and now the adventure begins.

So on Monday, after a weekend of packing my kit, spending some time with my nearest and dearest and probably popping to the pub for a couple of beers with friends, I'll stop being Simon Vannerley, sub-editor on the North Devon Journal, and become Lieutenant Vannerley, Corunna Company, 6th Battalion The Rifles.

We've got three months' full time training in the UK: for the first couple of weeks we will take and pass our annual military tests in shooting, fitness, first aid and many other subjects and from there we will begin a round of field exercises, honing our teamwork and skills so that when it comes to landing in Helmand Province, the team will be ready for any mission our superiors throw at us.

Our man in Afghanistan

North Devon Journal sub-editor Simon Vannerley has served in the Territorial Army since 2004, rising through the ranks to become a Lieutenant in the 6th Battalion, The Rifles.In May, he was called up for an operational tour in Afghanistan and will serve alongside fellow members of his battalion as a platoon commander.Throughout Simon's build-up training and deployment to Afghanistan, he will be recording his experiences and sharing what it's like for soldiers on the ground in one of the world's most war-torn regions.