In September 2006, a three-man reconnaissance team from Paras set out from their outpost overlooking the Kajaki Reservoir in southern Afghanistan to join the fight against the Taliban al-Qaeda. As they crossed a dry riverbed, one of them stepped on a mine that had been left behind during the Russian occupation some 25 years earlier. His comrades rushed to his side, only to find that they were surrounded by an unknown number of mines, and every step they took could result in serious injury or even death.