Our man in Afghanistan: John Scott's first-hand account of a roadside bomb blast

Today, in the first of a week-long series of reports, he gives a first-hand account of a roadside blast and its bloody aftermath.

A Danish army vehicle was destroyed on a patrol route due to be swept by the 3rd Battalion Mercian Regiment (3Mercian) forces, who raced to the scene as a Chinook helicopter dashed in to evacuate the wounded.

John went on patrol near Gereshk in trouble-torn Helmand Province and was also given unprecedented access to the trauma centre at Camp Bastion where the skill of medics has saved the lives of hundreds of wounded military personnel. He spoke to the medics from the West Midlands, Staffordshire and Shropshire staffing the centre:

The tell-tale tower of white smoke was easy to spot as it reached high into the cloudless blue sky.

Our worst fears were soon confirmed when a message crackled through the airwaves on the radio of the six-man Foxhound armoured car I was travelling in with members of the 3rd Battalion the Mercian Regiment (3Mercian) – formerly The Staffords.

Their call sign revealed they were the same troops that 3Mercian soldiers from its Kandak Liaison Team had been on an operation with five days earlier.

It also rekindled painful memories of the attack that claimed the life of Sergeant Major Ian Fisher from 3Mercian earlier in their present tour of duty on the frontline in Afghanistan's trouble-torn Helmand Province.

The father of two was killed by a suicide bomber in a vehicle.

The latest blast was so strong it blew the 24-ton Cougar into a field wounding three men, one seriously. The right hand side of the vehicle was caved in but fortunately it had remained on its wheels preventing further injury to those inside if it had rolled over.

Pieces of black twisted metal – all that remained of the motorcycle taxi – littered the road and hard packed sand.

Only luck had prevented the Foxhound in which I sat from becoming a target for the bomber after our patrol was delayed for an hour by a last minute hitch over air cover. Otherwise we would have passed the lair where the insurgents waited to trigger the deadly car bomb before the Cougar.

Our four-vehicle patrol had intended to visit check points and a patrol base manned by the Afghan Army but that plan was abandoned as we went to help the wounded soldiers.

The 3Mercian troops were the first military personnel to reach the scene, arriving minutes after the IED strike.

Some helped to extract the wounded while the remainder set up a protective cordon amid fears of secondary devices being hidden in the area.

The Cougar had been part of a three-vehicle convoy that, ironically, was taking members of a Danish IED task force travelling to a base around three miles away where they were due to relieve another bomb disposal squad.

Comrades from their convoy were helped by members of 3Mercian in getting them out.

One of the casualties had been standing in the turret of the Cougar when the blast happened and complained that he could not feel his legs.

The other injuries appeared to have been caused by pieces of equipment that were not properly secured and had been hurled about the inside of the Cougar by the blast.

The injured were gently freed from the wrecked armoured truck despite fears that other explosive devices could have been planted nearby.

The man complaining of possible spinal damage was carried to a waiting 3Mercian Foxhound where he was joined by the other casualties who had injuries to the chest and arm but were able to walk with assistance.

Two Apache attack helicopters, alerted to the drama, clattered menacingly overhead as the medical emergency response team was called in to airlift the casualties to hospital.

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A coloured smoke bomb was lit to identify the landing site and indicate the wind direction for the pilot of the Chinook to gauge his landing on the road surface shortly after the three men had been removed from the wrecked Cougar.

They were put in the back of the Foxhound from our group that drove to a spot from which they could be transferred to the helicopter when it touched down. The Foxhound was parked in such a way as to shield the casualties from the down draft from the Chinook.

The walking wounded were helped aboard and the stretcher case carried up the ramp. The troops who had helped with the operation barely had time to rush off the helicopter and find shelter before the Chinook was airborne again and on its way to the hospital at Camp Bastion.

It had been on the ground for less than three minutes. After it left, the soldiers on the ground turned their attention to piecing together details of the bombing.

The command wire was soon found indicating that it had been detonated by a watching bomber rather than the result of a suicide attack.

The wire stretched towards compounds overlooking Route 611 – the main road between Nahri Saraj and the Kajaki District of Helmand – at the point where the insurgents struck close to Lashkar Gah Durai.

A 'mouse hole' in the surrounding wall of compound with uninterrupted line of sight to the scene of the bombing was soon established as the probable firing point for the bomber.

There were signs of the place having been recently occupied and reports of two men riding away on motorbikes after the explosion.

As the hunt for them intensified, another plume of white smoke rose into the air. Radio messages quickly revealed that a suicide attack had just been launched on an Afghan Army check point at nearby Yakshal Bazaar – a base passed by our patrol earlier that morning.

Several Afghan soldiers were burnt and four passers-by injured when a car drove in to the surrounding wall as the driver detonated a bomb destroying part of the structure.

As we drove through it a young boy made an unsuccessful attempt to leap on to the back of one of the vehicles in our convoy.

The move was apparently an attempt at a 'game' played by children in the town who try to slash open a 20 kilo water tank carried by some army trucks.

The IED attack on the Cougar was only the second in the area to target members of the International Security Assistance Force(ISAF) – that includes the British and the Danes – in the past four months. The previous one had seen a British logistics team drive over a bomb left on road in the dark. There were no casualties.

The latest blast was also unusual because it involved a parked motorcycle taxi, known locally as a 'took took' after the noise it makes.

Major Andy MacLanahan, officer in charge of the Kandak Liaison Team, said: "It is the first time for a long while that they have done something like that.

"It is really difficult for them to target ISAF vehicles because the counter measures we take ensure they have to take considerable risk and remain at the scene to detonate the bomb."

A suspect was detained in connection with inquiries into the explosion while the three victims are expected to make good recoveries. 3Mercian Commanding Officer Lt Col Chris Davies later told me: "We received actionable intelligence as a result of picking up that guy and it is being exploited."

A team of experts then launched a painstaking operation to recover the wrecked Cougar. A robot was used to cut the bomb's command wire and prod the ground in the search for secondary devices. Then a Mastiff recovery vehicle – complete with crane – was slowly backed up to the damaged vehicle that was lifted and towed back for repair at a base used the Danes at Camp Bastion.

Throughout this the Kandak Liaison Team – a Kandak is an Afghan Army battalion – maintained the security cordon meaning we had spent 10 hours at the scene by the time we got the all clear.

When we finally got back to their base at Camp Price, outside the bustling market town of Gereshk that straddles the River Helmand, Major MacLanahan turned to me and said with a smile: "You now have the perfect story of army life. Ten minutes of high excitement followed by 10 hours of doing nothing."

He accepted that the bomber had been waiting to hit the next army patrol that drove past and that this could easily have been us if the patrol had started on time. He added: "You win some, you lose some. We obviously had some credit in the bank today."

On the return journey we had passed the Afghan Army check point targeted by the suicide bomber earlier in the day.

The tangled remains of the white car used by the bomber was clearly visible in the dark as was the gaping hole in the Hesco wall of the base caused by the blast.

It was further evidence that danger will stalk our combat troops every step of the way until the last one of them leaves Afghanistan at the end of the year.

Tomorrow: More exclusive reports from the front line