Canadian troops begin major combat operation
Updated Sat. Sep. 8 2007 12:42 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Canadian troops are carrying out a major operation -- 'Operation Keeping Goodwill' -- in the volatile Zhari district of Afghanistan's Kandahar province.
"This is likely the largest operation that we've seen this summer," CTV's Steve Chao told Newsnet from Afghanistan on Saturday.
"We're told by Canadian commanders that it involves the entire Canadian battle group. It involves tanks, light armoured vehicles, hundreds of infantry soldiers supported by American air power.
"We're also told that at the front of the pack is the Afghan army, who has so far taken the brunt of enemy fire."
Zhari district is located about 20 to 30 kilometres west of Kandahar city.
In September 2006, the Canadian military carried out Operation Medusa in Zhari and Panjwai districts. That operation saw Canadian troops plunged into some of the fiercest combat since the Korean War.
Canada's forces prevailed, but Chao said the Afghan police haven't been able to keep the Taliban from returning.
"What it seems they're trying to do is regain this ground and then teach the Afghan police how to keep the Taliban out," he said.
Afghan police only get about 10 days of training and earn far less than the Taliban. They have poor access to weaponry and no armoured vehicles. "So they've consistently been the target of Taliban attacks in recent months, especially since the Taliban have learned they can't take on NATO forces directly," Chao said.
Canadian commanders are only saying the operation has been going on for about 24 hours and could continue for a few days. Training the police will be a longer-term task, he said.
Since Quebec's Royal 22nd Regiment came to Afghanistan in late July, it has lost three soldiers. All three died in Zhari district, and all three died from roadside blasts.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...hub=TopStories
Winning and losing the Panjwai
Friday, September 7, 2007 | 03:16 AM ET
By David Common
It was a vicious two weeks. During September 2006, in the place the movement was born, Taliban fighters gathered en masse in the Panjwai Valley, presumably to prepare for an all-out assault on the nearby strategic city of Kandahar.
Almost all of Canada's battle group was sent out. Day after day, there were hours and hours of shooting. Canadian soldiers died. Taliban fighters died (though it's never been clear how many). When it was over, NATO claimed victory and suggested insurgent forces were destroyed. Operation Medusa, as it was known, became legendary.
The problem is, while the Canadians could fight, they couldn't stay. The troops were needed elsewhere.
So the relatively capable, though still small and lightly-armed Afghan National Army took over. But those soldiers also were eventually needed elsewhere in this chaotic land, so they left their corrupt compatriots of the Afghan National Police (ANP) to keep Panjwai and the area stable.
However, the ANP is comprised of the former (and current) fighters of warlords, criminal gangs and, sometimes, the Taliban. The police are poorly equipped and while some mean well, many do not. Their salaries go unpaid for months at a time so they shake down the locals for money, thus alienating themselves more. So, it's little surprise that when Taliban fighters started challenging the ANP, the police left.
All that was gained in Operation Medusa has now been lost, or is at least in doubt.
NATO troops vs. Taliban troops
So, why has this happened?
I've been coming to this country since May, 2002. I've also attended meetings at NATO Headquarters since the alliance took over the mission. On every visit, the same subject has come up: troop numbers.
There are 30,000 soldiers in this country under the banner of the International Security Assistance Force. In Iraq, a country half the size, the U.S. alone has 150,000 troops.
The simple fact is this: NATO can seize land rather effectively. But there aren't enough resources to keep it. Almost every NATO nation has been asked to send more, if it can. Some have, Britain notable among them. Some have refused to send more, such as Italy and France (though this may change with a new President). Others, like Germany, have slightly increased their commitments but don't want their troops in combat. (The dilemma is that reconstruction in this country is often challenged, necessitating a combat response. If one country isn't willing to fight, then another country will have to pick up the slack).
The Taliban, by contrast, has a seemingly endless supply of fighters. Within a couple of weeks of NATO claiming 50 or 100 insurgent deaths (they don't tend to find bodies, apparently assuming the survivors quickly bury their comrades, according to Islamic tradition), the fighters seem to be replaced.
The Taliban’s new tactics
Don't, though, expect any more large-scale battles. The Taliban have shifted tactics away from direct confrontations and towards more use of roadside bombs. While the Canadians have the best armoured vehicles in this country, huge amounts of explosives can shred through almost anything. So, the Taliban are using larger and larger amounts - forcing them to use more of their supplies on a single attack.
Unfortunately, after three decades of war, there are a lot of unexploded bombs and other materials around Afghanistan for them to use. With such huge amounts of explosives, it is somewhat more difficult to plant the bombs just as a convoy is rolling down the road. Instead, the insurgents choose a well-traveled route and wait, hoping a convoy will go by. The Canadians, and NATO and general, can avoid this by, "changing the way they move," as a commander here told me. In short, that means changing routes as often as possible.
And NATO is getting better at finding IED's. While they won't share numbers, the UN does keep a count. More than 500 of them have exploded so far in Afghanistan but nearly 500 have been found before they caused any destruction or death. Sometimes surveillance catches the bomb-planting, and sometimes locals call in with a tip-off. And sometimes, it is the drivers of the convoys themselves who notice something unusual in the road.
That, in short, is where we're at.
This country has known setbacks and NATO is experiencing many of them. But there are small successes too and considering where Afghanistan was five years ago, those small successes seem much larger.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/reportsfromab...e_panjwai.html