Rocket attacks on the base were happening more and more often. The Taliban would use what the military calls ‘unmanned firing bases’. Unmanned firing bases are used against targets that are devoid of cover and concealment. Like our airbase in Kandahar, where we worked and lived. We were one big target.

The Taliban would survey these targets in daylight and set up rockets on makeshift or disposable launchers. They would connect these rockets to time-delayed firing devices. They ensured they would be well away from the area and hidden when ISAF would calculate the point of origin of the launch site by tracking the missile’s trajectory with radar. Once the calculation was done, they would go in search of the Taliban. This all happened after the rockets exploded on an uncovered base.

Although Kandahar airfield was equipped with a radar defence system detecting incoming rockets, it could not pinpoint where such a rocket was going to fall on the base. The containers we lived in were unarmoured and very vulnerable to rocket attacks. As soon as a rocket was detected, a siren would go off and a voice over the public address system echoed through the base:-

‘Rocket attack, rocket attack,’

The announcement always sent both the soldiers and us civilian workers scurrying into concrete bunkers. Once inside this bunker, we would sit and wait. Chatting and listening for the dull thud of detonations outside.

Rocket impacts sent shrapnel flying everywhere. Depending on where they landed, the deadly chunks of hot metal slammed into walls, vehicles, and aircraft. Sometimes into flesh.

After some time in the bunker and when there were no more explosions, we would hear the siren wailing again. The voice over the public address system will say:-

‘All clear. All clear.’

Everybody would then go back to doing what they were doing before the attack. The rocket attacks in Kandahar were a fact of life, and the possibility of a rocket attack was never far from one’s mind.

During my time there on the base, two missiles exploded very close to our containers. On one of those nights, I was standing outside smoking when I heard a whistling sound overhead. I dove to the ground, lying down flat. About two hundred metres from our containers, the missile exploded in a tented camp. We later heard that two soldiers were killed in the explosion.

The second one fell much closer to our container. About fifty metres from it, but luckily for me and my fellow civilians, it did not explode.