Tiny Estonia keen to make large contribution in Afghanistan fight
 

By Heath Druzin
December 26, 2009

NAD ALI DISTRICT, Afghanistan: An hour earlier, the tiny patrol base had been rocked by the low thud to which the soldiers here have become grimly accustomed. It was the fatal sound of a comrade tripping an insurgent bomb. Silence hung over the normally chatty platoon.

But there was little time for reflection in...central Helmand province. The soldiers, 2,500 miles from their homes in tiny Estonia, clipped their chin straps, readied their rifles, and walked out the front gate just a few hundred yards from where their friend’s body had been carried off the battlefield.
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While other larger European countries have limited how and where their soldiers can operate, Estonia has been keen to prove itself to its NATO allies, maintaining a combat force of about 150 soldiers in some of Afghanistan’s most dangerous areas and doubling that briefly during the country’s elections in August.

Estonia’s combat contingent is spread across two rough-hewn compounds in a rural valley that alternates between lush green and tan-gray desert, where farming is the main source of livelihood and many of the roads are riddled with mines.

Estonian soldiers have been engaged in heavy combat since arriving in 2006. Despite their small numbers, they’ve lost seven soldiers, the latest being Sgt. Kristjan Yalakas, 19. Yalakas tripped the booby trap near Patrol Base Wahid while preparing to check a compound Dec. 15. Two days before that, another soldier was seriously injured in a similar bombing, the 57th Estonian to be injured in Afghanistan.

This year has been the deadliest for the Estonians in Afghanistan, with four soldiers killed. In a country with just 1.3 million people, everything the soldiers do is scrutinized, every death a big national story.

“Of course it’s hard for a small country to accept the casualty numbers, but it’s the war; it’s our responsibility as a NATO country,” said Maj. Sergei Guselnikov, 36, the company’s stony-faced, chain-smoking commander.
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Like many of their neighbors eager for a security buffer from Russia, Estonia has been an enthusiastic U.S. ally and NATO member, sending troops to Iraq and now Afghanistan.

"....Estonia has been a staunch ally of America and Britain and they have sacrificed a lot of soldiers in this campaign.”