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Topic: Afghanistan, 3rd Bn, R22R, Part Duex... (Read 4669 times)
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Mike Blais
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Forces hire controversial security firm for Afghan duty
Former Hart Security worker ran apartheid-era 'special ops unit'; firm now protecting advisers
Andrew Mayeda and Mike Blanchfield
The Ottawa Citizen
Monday, December 03, 2007
The Canadian Forces have hired a private security firm in Afghanistan that once employed a former member of a South African military unit that assassinated opponents of the apartheid regime.
Hart Security provides protection to Canada's Strategic Advisory Team, a group of about 20 military officers and foreign affairs officials who advise the Afghan government.
Based in London, Hart has been operating in Iraq since the start of the war in 2003, and now claims to be the biggest private security firm in the south of the country.
In spring 2004, a Hart employee was killed in a firefight in the city of Kut, about 185 kilometres southeast of Baghdad. The employee was identified as 55-year-old Gray Branfield.
During the apartheid era of white minority rule, Mr. Branfield ran a "special operations unit" in Zimbabwe for the South African government.
In 1988, a team of agents led by Mr. Branfield set off a bomb that killed one Zimbabwean and injured six members of the African National Congress.
According to a report by South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the attack was planned by the covert Civil Co-operation Bureau, whose objective was to silence anti-apartheid activists around the world.
The company says on its website that "project personnel are selected on strict criteria for their quality and ability to meet the demands of each particular task." The company has also said it was not aware of Mr. Branfield's background when he was hired.
"That would have been of great concern to us if he had been involved in illegal activity," Hart executive Simon Falkner told an interviewer after Mr. Branfield's death. "As far as I'm concerned, he was a bona fide individual and a very fine man. He died protecting his guys, which, frankly, if he was in the army, would have won him a very high award."
The company did not respond to an interview request this week. However, it is not unusual for private security firms to hire former special-forces soldiers from the U.S., Britain and South Africa who have covert-ops experience.
Maj. Vance White, a Canadian Forces spokesman, said Hart was only hired "recently" and was not employed when Mr. Branfield was with the firm.
Hart was founded in 1999 by Lord Richard Westbury, a former member of Britain's elite commando unit, the Special Air Service. It provides everything from VIP and embassy security to counterterrorism training for governments and "supply-chain security assistance" for corporations. The company has counted the BBC and the World Food Program among its clients. In Iraq, Hart has protected power supply lines and helped secure the 2005 national elections.
The company says it adheres to numerous international standards, including the International Committee of the Red Cross's code of conduct, and insists its employees comply with all laws and regulations of the countries in which they operate.
However, it also reserves the right to work for companies "whose activities, although legal, may be deemed controversial or appear to fall outside the normal service areas," according to the company's website.
Hart is one of three firms employed in Afghanistan by the Canadian Forces. Another British firm, Blue Hackle Security, provides security for the Joint Co-ordination Centre in the heart of Kandahar City, next to the governor's palace. That is where Canadian Forces personnel and Afghan National Police co-ordinate emergency responses to crises in the area.
Also based in London, Blue Hackle provides security, threat assessment and hostage-extraction services to private companies, aid agencies and government agencies in conflict zones.
Blue Hackle appears to have avoided some of the tragic mistakes that have befallen other private security firms, such as Blackwater USA, which has killed civilians in Iraq. On its website, Blue Hackle touts its "unrivalled safety record."
"We work at maintaining solid relationships with the local population and this is a key element of our successful strategy," says the company's website. "We maintain a low profile, backed up by the highest-quality resources in terms of planning, people and equipment."
The company did not respond to an interview request.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
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Mike Blais
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Unrealistic for Canada to leave current role in a year, analyst says
Dec 05, 2007 04:30 AM
Allan Woods
Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA–Canada has run out of time to find foreign replacements for its 2,500 soldiers fighting in Kandahar when the mission expires in 2009, a former government foreign policy adviser says.
Roland Paris, a University of Ottawa professor and former analyst in the Privy Council Office, says it is no longer realistic to believe the government can pull Canadian troops out of their current role in February 2009, just over a year from now. Even a "partial drawdown" of soldiers is a recipe for disaster in Afghanistan's violent southern province, he told the Star in an interview.
"We would, in effect, need to find another country to supply additional forces to Kandahar this winter. I think the chances of finding another NATO country to fill the space that would be vacated by a partial drawdown of Canadian Forces this winter ... are quite low."
Paris was echoing the recommendations he gave to a panel that is to make proposals on the future of the mission to the government in late January. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised to hold a parliamentary vote on Canada's future in Afghanistan shortly after he receives the recommendations from the panel led by former deputy prime minister John Manley.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay has said Canada must give its final decision to NATO at a meeting in Romania next April.
Paris's warning suggests the government may be running out the clock on that decision.
Faced with the complexities of organizing the 37-member NATO mission and finding replacement troops while trying to increase the overall force, he suggested that Canada extend its mission to 2010 and immediately serve notice that it intends to rotate out of Kandahar province. That would allow a new U.S. president to take office and possibly redeploy troops from Iraq and let Britain, France and Australia offer troops to NATO.
"I'm not convinced Canada really needs to stay in its current role at current levels all the way through to 2011. I think it's normal and natural for Canada to rotate its deployment," Paris said, adding that Canadian troops could come home or move to a safer part of Afghanistan.
The Harper government says it wants to stay the course until 2011 when it will have finished training a 70,000-strong Afghan army.
Omar Samad, Afghan ambassador to Ottawa, said yesterday the government hopes to have the army at 70,000 troops before 2009 but that number may be insufficient.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
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Mike Blais
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Another sad day....
Hundreds of mourners gather for funerals of fallen soldiers
Last Updated: Saturday, December 8, 2007 | 8:15 PM ET
CBC News
Two young children clutching brown teddy bears marched alongside hundreds of mourners gathering for one of two funerals for fallen Canadian soldiers on Saturday.
Alexandre, 7, and Josian, 6, lost their father, Cpl. Nicolas Beauchamp, when he was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on Nov. 17.
About 800 mourners turned out for his funeral in his hometown of St.-Hyacinthe, Que., marching behind a military procession that wove its way through the town about 50 kilometres east of Montreal.
The bombing that killed Beauchamp, 28, also claimed the life of Pte. Michel Lévesque, 25, and killed an Afghan interpreter. Lévesque and Beauchamp served together in the Royal 22nd Regiment, also known as the Van Doos, which is based at CFB Valcartier.
A private funeral was held for Lévesque on Saturday in his hometown of Rivière-Rouge, in Quebec's Laurentians. Just before he died, Lévesque had become engaged to his 18-year-old girlfriend, who is pregnant.
Beauchamp lived with his common-law wife, Cpl. Dolorès Crampton, in Pont-Rouge, near Quebec City. She is a medical technician for the armed forces.
Continue Article
Before Beauchamp's funeral, his family praised the soldier who had a passion for the outdoors and loved to help people.
"He was a guy who truly had his principles in his heart," said Beauchamp's father Robert. "For us, he will always be our hero."
"I adored the child that he was and I loved the man that he became."
With files from the Canadian Press
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
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Mike Blais
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Canadian and Afghan troops capture IED factory in Panjwai-area
5 hours ago
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A coalition force led by Canadian soldiers captured a Taliban explosives factory and cleared insurgents operating around a highway in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province.
The Canadian military says a Canadian unit, a company of Afghan army troops and a Nepalese company backed by artillery and air support took on insurgent elements that had been operating around Highway One.
The military says the explosives factory that was captured Saturday produced improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.
Kandahar Police Chief Sayed Aka Fakid claims that coalition forces killed 30 insurgents and wounded nine more.
There were no Canadian casualties and only one Afghan soldier was wounded.
Panjwai district has been the scene of bitter fighting off and on for the past couple of years.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
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Mike Blais
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On the UK front...
Afghan troops take Taleban town
Afghan army troops have captured the Taleban-held town of Musa Qala without meeting resistance, the Nato-led force in Afghanistan has said.
The insurgents have pulled out of what was the only major Afghan centre in Taleban hands, reportedly melting away into the mountains.
Afghan, US and UK troops have been fighting Taleban there since Friday.
The Taleban took over Musa Qala in February, despite a deal struck with tribal elders when UK troops withdrew.
It has since become the main centre of drugs trading in Afghanistan, the BBC's David Loyn in Kabul says.
Counter-attack
The Taleban withdrew after telling local elders that they would not fight street by street after heavy aerial bombardment during the night.
According to our correspondent they will easily disappear into the mountains to the north of the town, dressed as they are in the same way as the local residents, with the distinctive black turban worn in the south of Afghanistan.
However, they are expected to regroup and try to stage a counter-attack, our correspondent says, so the task for Nato and Afghan forces now is to dig in and fortify their positions.
The British are planning to set up a small base in Musa Qala, but the defence of the town will be led by Afghan forces.
As the assault was taking place, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown was elsewhere in Helmand province, visiting troops in Camp Bastion, the largest British camp in the restive region.
Mr Brown made reference to the fighting in Musa Qala as he addressed troops there.
"I know this weekend in Musa Qala some of you here have been doing a very important job in clearing the Taleban from that area," Mr Brown said.
"I believe if we can succeed there, as we will, and if we can work with the Afghan forces, then we can move forward events in Afghanistan in favour of a more peaceful future for this country."
Co-operation
The assault is the first major operation where the new Afghan army is playing a leading role.
Mr Brown, at a later news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul said the operation in Musa Qala was a prime example of Nato and Afghan troops working successfully together.
Twelve Taleban fighters and two children are reported to have been killed in the four days of fighting since Friday and a UK soldier died when an explosion hit his vehicle.
A second Nato soldier died in the area on Sunday.
Two senior Taleban leaders are reported to have been captured in the fighting.
Heavy rain fell on the battlefield overnight, making conditions difficult for vehicles as sand turns to mud.
It is also another hardship for thousands of residents of Musa Qala who fled north across the desert to the mountains when the fighting began.
On Sunday, the Taleban mounted attacks in three other towns in Helmand in an apparent diversionary tactic.
Story from BBC NEWS:
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
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Mike Blais
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Canadians advance to contact... Tallyho...
THE AFGHAN MISSION
Canadians open new front against Taliban
Push into insurgents' territory part of a flurry of NATO activity in southern Afghanistan as winter starts to impede enemy's movement
GRAEME SMITH
December 10, 2007
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- A Canadian-led offensive opened a new front against the Taliban in Kandahar this weekend, adding pressure on the insurgents as they also faced a major attack from NATO and Afghan forces in neighbouring Helmand.
Canadian soldiers and their allies advanced on foot into the fields around Zangabad, a village about 40 kilometres southwest of Kandahar city, at daybreak on Saturday. An Afghan military statement later said 10 insurgents were killed in the attack, but a Canadian commander said the number was higher, without giving details.
Under the name Operation Sure Thing, the offensive marked the first time Canada's battle group has fought alongside the famed Gurkhas, soldiers of Nepalese origins who have fought under British command since the 1800s. Afghan soldiers also joined the fight.
The Canadians made their push into Taliban territory at the same time as British and U.S. forces continue to lead an effort to recapture Musa Qala, a town in northern Helmand province that the insurgents had used as a model for their alternative system of government.
Print Edition - Section Front
NATO officials had initially predicted a swift victory in Musa Qala, but after the death of two NATO soldiers over the weekend, the battle appeared to lose momentum. Brigadier-General Gul Aga Naebi, commander of the Afghan Army's 205th Corps, said 12 insurgents were killed on Saturday in Musa Qala, but none yesterday.
"We have surrounded Musa Qala town, but we haven't entered it yet," Brig.-Gen. Naebi said.
The fighting around Musa Qala was dwarfed by the battle in Kandahar, said Major Richard Moffet, Canada's acting battle group commander.
"Compared to what happened in Musa Qala? Musa Qala is nothing," Major Moffet said.
Embedded photojournalist Louie Palu, travelling with the Canadian troops, saw smoke rising from artillery and air strikes that continued through Saturday, and Canadian soldiers kicking down doors of mud-walled homes.
He also witnessed a Canadian medic and soldier helping a Taliban fighter who was gunned down by Afghan forces, then carrying their wounded enemy 1,400 metres over rough terrain for medical evacuation.
The immediate goal of the Canadian offensive was to halt the persistent Taliban attacks on a newly established police station in Panjwai district, Major Moffet said, declaring the action a success.
The flurry of NATO activity in southern Afghanistan also comes as winter starts to impede the movement of insurgents. They're no longer comfortable sleeping outside and snows block the mountain routes to Pakistan.
In Kandahar, the Taliban territory now being targeted by Canadian forces is familiar ground, having already been captured in Operation Baaz Tsuka during the same cold season last year and later lost to the insurgents in the spring-time.
In Helmand, too, the fighting focuses on a town that British troops abandoned last year under pressure from the Taliban.
An air strike in the Nowzad district of Helmand province this weekend killed 12 civilians and left a boy as the sole surviving member of the family, said Abdul Satar Mazahari, head of the refugee department in Helmand province.
The British military reportedly described those killed in the strike as insurgents.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
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Mike Blais
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Family, food carry soldier's heart home TheStar.com - World - Family, food carry soldier's heart home
Christmas lights adorn a tent at the Canadian barracks at Kandahar Airfield, where the Royal 22nd Regiment — the Vandoos — are stationed.
December 17, 2007
Mitch Potter
Toronto Star
For the countdown to Christmas, veteran foreign correspondent Mitch Potter travelled to Afghanistan to profile Canadian soldiers deployed at Kandahar Airfield.
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Christmas for Marie-Christine Alamy used to mean a massive family gathering in Laval, Que., a party so crowded the cousins sat shoulder to shoulder all the way to the top of the stairs.
This year it will probably mean another patrol through Panjwaii Bazaar, where Afghan women in burqas point and stare, amazed that behind all that body armour and fatigues is a female Canadian platoon leader shouting orders to the 40 men at her command.
Lieut. Alamy, 25, has been in the thick of such surreal cultural contact since she arrived in July with the Valcartier-based Royal 22nd Regiment.
So far, the deployment has involved spending "97 per cent of my time at the Forward Operating Base and maybe 3 per cent at KAF (Kandahar Airfield).
"We just come back for a quick rest and a shower. A very, very long shower. And then we go back out there," she says.
There was one memorable vacation last month, when she and her fellow soldier-fiancé Francis Belanger, both 25, flew not home but to the Seychelles, to tie the knot.
Now the newlyweds will pass Christmas in Kandahar as husband and wife – but not together. They are deployed at separate locations, with Taliban in between.
Her contact with Afghans has gone both ways, from warm dialogue to hot combat. There have been no deaths in her unit, but three of the combat injuries resulted in evacuation to Canada. Alamy is expecting reinforcements to finish the tour.
"I was the little girl who preferred martial arts to dancing. My father was in the militia, and they used to find me in the garage playing with his equipment," she says.
"Then in high school, some people were talking about applying to join the Canadian Forces. I thought to myself, `I could do that, too.' That's how I got here."
There is a learning curve to every six-month military rotation in Afghanistan wherein the jumpy first-timers evolve into been-there, done-that vets. Alamy laughs now at reactions the first time a Taliban rocket landed inside her position in the Panjwaii district.
"Everyone was running in all directions, shouting and you are thinking, `Oh my God, what just happened?'" she remembers.
"Now, when a rocket lands people just continue their conversations. Nobody panics. You realize the danger has already passed, so there is not point in hitting the ground."
Alamy says her gender makes more of an impression on Afghan women than men.
"The men, they may not respect me as a woman, but they respect my rank.
``They look me in the eye, they listen, they get my point," she says.
"The Afghan women's reaction is much bigger. They stare, they point, they are really shocked because they can see that I am the one giving orders and using the radio and running things.
"It can't be a bad thing for them to see that."
Alamy lists what she will miss most during Christmas away. Family, of course. And not one but two kinds of tourtière, made from recipes reflecting her mother's roots in Quebec's Gaspésie region and her father's roots in France. There is always a store-bought bûche de Noël (Yule log) on the table for dessert, but that is really just for decoration because everyone tops off their meal with mouth-watering homemade chocolate biscotti.
"I hope they will save a bit for when I return.
"We will definitely have a party, because our families weren't at the wedding in the Seychelles. It was too hard to plan anything beyond preparing for Afghanistan, let alone planning a wedding. But we didn't want to wait."
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
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Mike Blais
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Troops to face tougher Taliban in 2008: Hillier
General Rick Hillier Chief of the National Defence staff is shown during interview with the Canadian Press in Ottawa, Friday December 14, 2007. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand)
General Rick Hillier Chief of the National Defence staff is shown during interview with the Canadian Press in Ottawa, Friday December 14, 2007. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand)
The Canadian Press
Updated: Mon. Dec. 17 2007 1:35 PM ET
OTTAWA — The Taliban have become more sophisticated in the way they plant roadside bombs in Afghanistan, importing lethal tactics already tested and proven on bloodied U.S. forces in Iraq, says Canada's chief of defence staff.
But Gen. Rick Hillier insists that, although insurgents have become more cagey and adept, Canadian troops are staying a step ahead of the improvised explosives and booby traps that litter the countryside.
"The Taliban are not 10-foot-tall warriors, but at the same time they are not to be dismissed lightly," Hillier said in a year-end interview with The Canadian Press.
The bombs have grown steadily bigger since Canadian troops first deployed to the Kandahar area for their latest Afghan assignment nearly two years ago.
The army's hardy, troop-transporting light armoured vehicles were initially a source of frustration for lightly armed insurgents, whose machine-gun bullets and rocket-propelled grenades pinged off the reinforced steel skins of the LAV IIIs. Their vexation only increased with the deployment of 62-tonne Leopard 2 tanks.
In response, the Taliban began stacking anti-tank mines atop one another, burying them in the mud and gravel roads that criss-cross the desert moonscape and arid farmland west of Kandahar. Detonated by pressure-plate or cell-phione signal, the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have been responsible for the majority of Canada's 73 combat deaths.
Hillier said insurgents have been crafty in their attempts to get the upper hand on the army.
"We know they watch us," he said in the wide-ranging interview on Friday.
"They watch our tactics. Yes, they do learn. The IEDs are not getting more sophisticated; they're getting more sophisticated in their use, how they place them, where they place them."
Tactics that have been the hallmark of insurgents in Iraq - where big roadside bombs followed ambushes and were followed in turn by suicide attacks - have seeped into the Afghan war. Prior to 2006, those kinds of co-ordinated, multi-pronged skirmishes were the exception, rather than the normal.
Throughout the last year, the army has learned that its LAV IIIs are not invulnerable to the bigger blasts and has introduced a variety of technical improvements, most of which are classified.
The RG-31s, the South African-designed armoured patrol vehicle specially designed to withstand land mines, were also scheduled to undergo improvements.
Last May, the Defence Department quietly announced that it would purchase specialized anti-IED vehicles from the U.S. military for close to $30 million. The Husky, Cougar and Buffalo work in tandem to detect buried mines and went into service last September.
Hillier said by far the biggest lessons have come in the army's now scientific approach to IED investigation.
A few weeks ago, National Defence confirmed it is turning to the private sector to better train soldiers who investigate roadside bombings.
Better investigative techniques will allow the army to track down individual bomb-makers and the improvised factories where the devices are assembled.
Whenever a new tactic is spotted, Hillier said that within days the military has been able to get the word out to soldiers in the field and even to those training at bases back in Canada so they can adapt.
"Years ago and (longer) it would have taken us months to learn those kinds of lessons."
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
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Dawn raid kills 41 Taliban
Allison Lampert, CanWest News Service Published: Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Rafiq Maqbool/Reuters
KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan -- The dawn raid of a Taliban compound southwest of Kandahar City was heralded as a major success for the Canadian Forces after 41 Taliban fighters were killed and four others captured.
The NATO coalition of Canadian soldiers, Afghan National Army troops and soldiers with the British army's Royal Gurkha Regiment surprised sleeping insurgents as the early-morning call to prayer from the mosque at Siah Choy rang out over the cluster of farming villages with mud-walled compounds. The Taliban fled into an open space where they were bombed by NATO aircraft.
"All the strikes that happened were in open terrain," Major Richard Moffet, deputy commanding officer of the Canadian battle group, told reporters yesterday. "We kick them out, we follow them and we strike them."
The Sunday battle, dubbed Operation Sharp Sword, was designed to disrupt insurgent activities, such as planting improvised explosive devices -- or roadside bombs -- and ambushes on key roads travelled by military convoys in the volatile Zhari and Panjwaii districts of Kandahar province.
When the fighting was over, coalition forces walked away without a single casualty, Maj. Moffet said. A large Taliban weapons cache, including small arms, was also uncovered.
NATO has been fighting for control of the densely populated region, favoured by the Taliban because of their ability to blend into the background, since the summer of 2006.
Canadian soldiers claimed victory about a year ago in another military offensive that hemmed insurgents into a nearby area, about 40 kilo-metres southwest of Kandahar City.
This time around, Maj. Moffet praised the Gurkhas, a decorated regiment of Nepalese soldiers that worked closely with Afghan soldiers, for bearing the "brunt of the battle."
Three Gurkha soldiers described the insurgents' initial surprise at seeing them on Sunday.
"They knew we weren't Afghan soldiers, or Canadian soldiers; they couldn't figure out who we were," one said.
No civilians are believed to have been harmed during the fighting, which drove villagers out of their homes into a nearby town.
Sunday's battle in Siah Choy highlights how insurgent activity has yet to cease, despite the arrival of winter. The cold weather usually slows insurgents, since many sleep outside and get their supplies from hideouts in the mountainous tribal lands straddling Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"It seems that despite [the fact] we're in December the enemy is remaining in the area," said Maj. Moffet, of the Quebec-based 3rd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment. "We have to tell them to go away for some time so we can resume with development and governance."
He added that the aim "is to create development, create jobs for people so they can work instead of using AK-47s with the Taliban. This is really what we want to do but we have to clear the place before we do that."
Maj. Moffet could not explain why the insurgents continue to be active, despite frequent clashes with coalition troops.
"It's kind of surprising to see so many insurgents still in the area," he said. "We've had a few big operations over the last two weeks. I have no explanation to tell you right now why they remain and why they are so resilient."
Taliban leaders have repeatedly said they would continue fighting this winter.
Air support gives NATO a marked advantage, said Maj. Moffet, making the battle "unsustainable" for its adversary.
Still, he admitted: "This is really a disrupting operation. It's going to last for what -- a couple of days, a week?"
The success of the operation will only last if Afghan soldiers and police officers bolster the coalition's presence on the ground to prevent insurgents from coming back, the military says. As part of this strategy, the Canadian Forces has set up seven Afghan police outposts in the Zhari and Panjwaii districts.
Maj. Moffet said the fledgling Afghan National Police would provide that presence on the ground, despite the force's reputation for poor discipline and corruption.
"If we want to be successful in the long term, we must remain," he said, "and this is what we're doing right now."
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
Ultimate 2000+ Member
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