Kandahar, Afghanistan — Documentary filmmaker Rich Fitoussi never liked getting into the Canadian army's much-heralded, much-loved light armoured vehicle — LAV III — or its cousin the Bison armoured car.
Even though the largely windowless metal cocoon is meant to keep him and hundreds of dust-covered soldiers whose lives he chronicled safe, it was always a nerve-wracking, uncomfortable experience.
Never more so than Saturday, as the well-travelled Toronto-native found himself hunkered down inside a Bison when suspected Taliban militants unleashed their deadly fury on a Canadian convoy, killing four soldiers.
"I feel a little bit guilty," said Mr. Fitoussi, 32, in an interview Sunday, "because why them and not me? I'm told it's a natural reaction."
"I feel a great deal of dread for the families back home."
Mr. Fitoussi's lumbering, heavily-shielded vehicle was directly behind the lighter-weight G-Wagon, which struck an improvised explosive device on a remote, rock-strewn wadi, or dry river bed, just outside of Gumbad. His life was probably saved because he was in a Bison — a fact not lost on him. ...
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