KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Sirens announcing Taliban rocket attacks have sent thousands of soldiers and civilians at the headquarters of Canada's Afghan mission scurrying to shelters six times over the past eight days.
Several injuries resulted from the recent blasts, but the officer in charge of base security says the attacks don't represent a new level of threat to the base and maintains that the hundreds of rockets lobbed into Kandahar Airfield over the past three years haven't affected its operations -- or its safety.
"We are under a degree of threat," said Air Commodore Andy Fryer of Britain's Royal Air Force, in charge of base security. "But when you compare it other areas, the threat here is considerably less."
The wailing call of the rocket attack alert is a fact of life at the base.
The sirens come at any time -- afternoon, evening or the small hours of the morning. When they do, everyone is expected to seek shelter until the Joint Defence Operations Centre gives the OK.
"This is the J-DOC," boom loudspeakers everywhere on the base. "All clear. All clear."
The base has been averaging five rocket attacks a month for the past three years, said Fryer. Most attacks consist of at least two rockets.
Although the six recent alarms are more frequent than usual -- and produced what Fryer called "a small handful" of injuries -- those attacks had been the first all September.
"Taken across the whole context, it's about average," Fryer said.
The rockets used are 107-millimetre weapons designed in the Soviet era. Although they pack a significant punch, they're impossible to aim precisely and include a high number of duds.
The metre-long, 30-kilogram weapons can be carried and set up by a single man. Most seem to be fired from within a 10-kilometre radius.
Fryer said the targeting preparations are not sophisticated.
"It does seem to be fairly rudimentary," he said. "They're trying to disrupt our operations and frighten us but they're doing neither."
Indeed, the atmosphere inside a shelter during an attack is hardly London during the Blitz.
Some bring in handheld video games. Others stand at the entrances for a smoke. Although the attacks are taken seriously, the general attitude ranges from wry humour to here-we-go-again annoyance.
The J-DOC has become a mythical figure on the base -- a Big Brother everyone hears but nobody sees.
"People ask me if I'm the J-DOC," laughs Fryer.
Sometimes, NATO fires back.
"We have responded in the last week with precision weapons, very carefully controlled," Fryer said.
On Wednesday, the night sky west of the base was lit up by more than a dozen flares as patrols searched for a Taliban rocket team and security measures on the base were elevated. Fryer wouldn't confirm if anyone had been found.
"(Afghans) are starting to co-operate with us to a greater degree," said Fryer. "That's enabling us to mount patrols where we've been given information."
Fryer commands a group of RAF airfield defence specialists who also patrol the surrounding area regularly.
Although there are approximately 10,000 soldiers and 3,500 civilians at the Kandahar Airfield, nobody has ever been killed in three years of rocket attacks.
The base is large, with a perimeter of about 30 kilometres. As well, it incorporates a number of design features that mitigate the effects of any blast within its walls.
Nevertheless, the alarms are unnerving and the booms from rockets crashing to earth are impressive -- a reminder that, despite the relatively comfortable life at Kandahar Airfield, with fast-food outlets, exercise gyms and a brand-new spa, it's still life in a war zone.
" One of the things that has impressed me most is the civilians on the base," said Fryer.
"They are every bit as committed to this operation as we are and I've been hugely impressed with the steel in their spirit."
