Under fire in Sangin - just another day in Afghanistan for British troops

The Daily Telegraph's Thomas Harding is the first British journalist to visit Sangin for three months. Upon leaving a market on a routine patrol with Charlie Company, 40 Commando Royal Marines, he came under fire from the Taliban. For a moment you could hear the wind gently rustling the trees and the pigeons cooing in the branches where they hid from the relentless sun.
The paused moment of idyll was broken by gunfire cutting into the trees above us this time from the high ground to our left that complimented the growing number of shots to our left.
The only thing we could thank the Taliban for was forcing us into a waist-deep irrigation canal whose cool waters soothed sweating bodies as the thermometer marched relentlessly towards 50C long before the sun reached its zenith.
The gunbattle that ensued was just another morning of strange normality for the people of Sangin. But it is a dangerous normality for the Royal Marines of 40 Commando who venture onto the streets and footpaths of Sangin dozens of times each day.
Already 11 have been killed in the 1,400 strong battlegroup almost three months into their tour with another 30 injured either by small arms fire or more usually by the Taliban’s sophisticated IED (improvised explosive device) network.
On patrol eyes have to be not only on the next treeline and a potential insurgent gun emplacement but also focused on the ground immediately under your feet.