Batalh?o de Comandos, Afghanistan. | Guilad Kahn, Photographer & Cameraman . Singapore.

Batalh?o de Comandos, Afghanistan.

Exclusive..The "comandos" patroling the Kabul area on Sunday June 4th 2006..The Comandos are a special forces unit in the Portuguese Army. Their motto is ÒAudaces Fortuna JuvatÓ (The Luck Protects the Bold) and their war cry is "MAMA SUM?" (it can be translated as "here we are, ready for the sacrifice" - it's taken from a Bantu tribe of southern Africa). They were created as counter guerrilla special forces, thus responding to the need of the army to have units specially adapted to the type of war that, in 1961, started in Angola and later in Portuguese Guinea (current Guinea-Bissau) and Mozambique..1993 when they were disbanded. This decision was influenced by a number of deaths in the instruction..in 2002, the commandos were reactivated as an independent unit and the "Batalh?o de Comandos" (Commando Battalion) was created. They are now based in Regimento de Infantaria 1 (1st Infantry Regiment) in Serra da Carregueira, Sintra. They were deployed to Afghanistan in 2005 and act as a quick response force under NATO's ISAF covering the whole country..In Afghanistan there is currently one battalion of 149 commandos on 6 months rotations. In December 2005, a Portuguese commando died and another one wounded in a incident in Afghanistan, when a bomb trap was detonated. Although based out of the KMNB compound, as a commando they work directly under ISAF HQ orders, and are able to deploy immediately all over the country for ground support of NATO troops in difficulty...

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Contained in galleries: Portuguese Commando (Portugal Comandos) in Afghanistan

Exclusive..The "comandos" patroling the Kabul area on Sunday June 4th 2006..The Comandos are a special forces unit in the Portuguese Army. Their motto is ÒAudaces Fortuna JuvatÓ (The Luck Protects the Bold) and their war cry is "MAMA SUM?" (it can be translated as "here we are, ready for the sacrifice" - it's taken from a Bantu tribe of southern Africa). They were created as counter guerrilla special forces, thus responding to the need of the army to have units specially adapted to the type of war that, in 1961, started in Angola and later in Portuguese Guinea (current Guinea-Bissau) and Mozambique..1993 when they were disbanded. This decision was influenced by a number of deaths in the instruction..in 2002, the commandos were reactivated as an independent unit and the "Batalh?o de Comandos" (Commando Battalion) was created. They are now based in Regimento de Infantaria 1 (1st Infantry Regiment) in Serra da Carregueira, Sintra. They were deployed to Afghanistan in 2005 and act as a quick response force under NATO's ISAF covering the whole country..In Afghanistan there is currently one battalion of 149 commandos on 6 months rotations. In December 2005, a Portuguese commando died and another one wounded in a incident in Afghanistan, when a bomb trap was detonated. Although based out of the KMNB compound, as a commando they work directly under ISAF HQ orders, and are able to deploy immediately all over the country for ground support of NATO troops in difficulty...