von Defence has released imagery of the fierce fire-fight between insurgents and a combined Afghan National Army and Australian Army patrol in which Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney was tragically killed.
The combat imagery, filmed by an Australian soldier using a camera mounted on his helmet, vividly demonstrates the intensity of the contact which lasted more than three hours against a large number of insurgents, some of whom were less than 100 metres away.
The combined ANA and Defence patrol used an aqueduct to move into the town of Derapet.
Observation from ADF elements identified fighting-aged males moving into the area while women and children were seen leaving.
Afghan soldiers fought side by side with their Australian counterparts and conducted their own battlefield ammunition resupply to remain in the fight.
Australian soldiers described their Afghan colleagues as fearless throughout the engagement. ISAF Close Air Support in the form of Apache Attack Helicopters supported the Afghan and Australian forces by conducting multiple strafing runs with a 30mm cannon.
After approximately three hours the Australian and Afghan patrol broke contact from the insurgents and moved back to their vehicle drop-off location.
Australian and Afghan soldiers inflicted heavy casualties on the insurgent force with a large number of insurgents known to have been killed.
Media Note:
Vision will be fed to Parliament House this afternoon
Media Note:
Video footage will be available
http://www.defence.gov.au/media/download/video/2010/Sep/video.htm and via our YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/ADFMedia?gl=AU&hl=en-GB.
Media Contact:
Defence media liaison: (02) 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664
Press release
Ministerial Support and Public Affairs,
Department of Defence,
Canberra, Australia
