Finbarr O'Reilly is a man embedded with Canadian troops in Afghanistan. In this story he recounts a narrow escape during an attack by Taliban fighters on Oct. 23.
Finbarr, who holds British and Canadian nationality, is a 36-year-old photographer who is based in West Africa. Finbarr won the World Press Photo of The Year Award in 2006.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The first Taliban shell struck just as Canadian and Afghan troops retreated across a dusty field in southern Afghanistan.
It exploded about 5 metres (yards) from four Canadian soldiers who were training their Afghan National Army counterparts as part of NATO's mission here.
As a photographer embedded with the Canadians, I was caught in the blast and enveloped by a cloud of dust and smoke.
We scrambled for cover behind a mud wall shielding us from Taliban positions on the opposite side of the field.
The unit I was with had earlier abandoned a planned dawn ambush of Taliban fighters. It responded quickly to the attack.
I focused on taking pictures of an Afghan army soldier shooting a heavy mounted machine gun from a nearby ditch.
A shell from an 82-millimetre recoilless rifle exploded in front of him and he disappeared in the flash of light. Sand blasted me and the shockwave knocked me over.
I was sure he was dead, or at least wounded. A moment later, he bounded out of the ditch and ran towards me through the smoke, the machine gun blazing from his hip, Rambo-style.
A third shell slammed into the solid mud wall where Canadian Sergeant-Major Paul Pilote was standing, sending the soldier sprawling backwards.
Stunned, and with blood spilling from his nose and mouth, Pilote crawled away from the explosion on hands and knees. I kept taking pictures through the haze.
Under fire, Canadian Master Corporal Frank Flibotte and Major Jean-Sebastien Fortin went to help Pilote.
The battle was typical of the conflict gripping the border region with Pakistan, where at least 24 clashes between former ruling Taliban and NATO and Afghan forces occurred last month.
