KANDAHAR - First came a deafening crash as the suicide bomber drove his vehicle headlong into a Nato convoy.It was followed almost instantly by a stomach-churning blast that roared through the crowded streets of Kandahar. Then the flames began to erupt. It was followed immediately by prolonged gunfire, screeching of tyres, and the screams of people as we ran for shelter a hundred yards away.
As the sirens began and helicopter-gunships began to circle overhead, there was nothing much left of the suicide bomber amid the smouldering pile of blackened twisted metal which had been his car.
A British Land Rover with its machine guns jaggedly sticking up in the air had been catapulted on to the central reservation. Two other vehicles had lurched to stops and lay abandoned amid pools of blood, pockmarked with bullet holes.
Sunday's attack was aimed at a British Royal Marines convoy returning to Helmand. Three civilians were killed, 18 others were injured as were three of the marines. It took place on the main route to the airport, nicknamed the Baghdad Highway by the locals, in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taleban, and where their resurgence has led to months of ferocious fighting.