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Topic: Afghanistan - 3rd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment - Predeployment (Read 6009 times)
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Mike Blais
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Troops begin move against Taliban
NOOR KHAN
Associated Press
June 18, 2008 at 6:37 AM EDT
ARGHANDAB, AFGHANISTAN — Canadian and Afghan forces moved into a series of villages outside of southern Afghanistan's largest city Wednesday to root out any Taliban militants there, while an explosion elsewhere killed four British soldiers, officials said.
Troops in Arghandab district just outside of Kandahar exchanged fire with militants during "a few minor contacts" but there were no immediate reports of casualties, NATO spokesman Mark Laity said. Helicopters patrolled the skies and smoke rose from fields after exchanges of fire.
A top provincial official in Kandahar said gun battles killed two Afghan troops and 16 Taliban. Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, also said hundreds of families had fled to the city, and that some of the villages had already been cleared of Taliban.
A helicopter landed in a field near the fighting and appeared to evacuate a casualty. Large Canadian military vehicles and Afghan police trucks were moving through the region.
"As of this morning we've expanded operations into Arghandab," Mr. Laity said. "Canadian troops are in support" of the Afghan National Army.
Afghanistan's Ministry of Defence on Tuesday said between 300 and 400 militant fighters were operating in Arghandab — a lush region of pomegranate and grape fields that lies 16 kilometres northwest of Kandahar city, the Taliban's spiritual home.
Canadian military officials who patrolled through Arghandab over the last day reported "no obvious signs" of insurgent activity. But that didn't mean there were no Taliban there, a news release said. Pentagon officials said reports of hundreds of Taliban in Arghandab were being overstated.
But Afghan officials and witnesses said Taliban fighters destroyed bridges and planted mines after overrunning the Arghandab villages on Monday. Local police said hundreds of farm families have fled, fearing upcoming military operations.
Meanwhile, the British Ministry of Defence said Wednesday that four British soldiers were killed when an explosive was detonated against their vehicle during a patrol in neighbouring Helmand province on Tuesday. At least one soldier was wounded.
It was one of the deadliest attacks of the year on international troops. Four U.S. Marines were killed in a roadside bomb in nearby Farah province earlier this month, but prior to that, no more than three international troops had been killed in any one attack in Afghanistan this year.
The Taliban have long sought to control Arghandab and the good fighting positions its pomegranate and grape groves offer. With control cemented, militants could cross the countryside's flat plains for probing attacks into Kandahar, in possible preparation for an assault on their former spiritual home.
Haji Agha Lalai, a provincial council member and the head of the province's reconciliation commission — which brings former insurgents who lay down their weapons back into the folds of society — said the militants were destroying bridges and planting mines as defensive measures in hopes they can repel attacks from Afghan and NATO forces.
"From a strategic military point of view, Arghandab is a very good place for the Taliban," Mr. Lalai said. "Arghandab is close to Kandahar city, allowing the Taliban to launch ambushes and attacks more easily than any other place in the province. Secondly, it's covered with trees and gardens. They can easily hide from air strikes."
The Taliban assault on the outskirts of Kandahar was the latest display of strength by the militants despite a record number of U.S. and NATO troops in the country. The push into Arghandab came three days after a co-ordinated Taliban attack on Kandahar's prison that freed 400 insurgent fighters.
The hard-line Taliban regime ousted from power in a 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan regarded Kandahar as its main stronghold, and its insurgent supporters are most active in the volatile south of the country.
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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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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Meanwhile, on the flank... a sad milestone.
First British woman and three special forces soldiers killed in Afghanistan
By Tom Coghlan in Kabul, Nick Allen and Caroline Gammell
Last updated: 2:57 PM BST 18/06/2008
The first British woman to die in action in Afghanistan was killed along with three other soldiers believed to be serving with the special forces.
They died in a roadside bomb attack as they were travelling in a Snatch Landrover, a vehicle originally designed for use in Northern Ireland.
Such vehicles have been repeatedly criticised for the poor defence they offer against roadside bombs compared to more heavily armoured alternatives.
It is thought they may have been using the vulnerable vehicle to keep a low profile and that the woman soldier, who was serving with the Intelligence Corps, may have been taken along in case female suspects had to be searched.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said the group were carrying out an operation when they were hit by a large bomb near Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province.
A fifth soldier was wounded and is in a stable condition.
In one of the bloodiest periods of the conflict so far nine British soldiers have now died in the last 10 days, bringing the total number of deaths to 106 since the start of military operations in November 2001.
Five soldiers from 2 Para were killed in two separate attacks in Helmand last week, raising fears of a Taliban summer offensive.
The latest tragedy was the single biggest loss of life for British forces in Afghanistan since the RAF Nimrod disaster in September 2006 when an aircraft crashed killing 14 people.
It came just days after Gordon Brown announced that around 200 more British troops are being sent to the country, taking the UK force to more than 8,000 for the first time.
The woman soldier who died was serving with the Intelligence Corps and was thought to be attached to 16 Air Assault Brigade.
A major Nato operation began today to contain rebel forces in Helmand's neighbouring province of Kandahar, the spiritual capital of the Taliban.
Commanders are concerned that the Taliban have changed tactics recently, increasingly using suicide bombers and more sophisticated roadside bombs, making operations by British soldiers more dangerous.
At Prime Minister's questions today Gordon Brown offered his "profound condolences" to the families of the soldiers.
Mr Brown told the Commons the troops were undertaking "difficult missions in the most dangerous of countries" and said Britain's armed forces were "second to none and the best in the world".
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said: "I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the families concerned."
When asked if he thought British efforts in Afghanistan were worth the bloodshed, Mr Miliband said it was the "only way this can be done".
He said: "We are in Afghanistan, where there are soldiers, diplomats or aid workers, with a very clear mission to make sure that Afghanistan has its own institution and its own security forces that ensure never again does it become a base for al-Qa'eda. We are there with a very clear national interest.
"There needs to be reconstruction, whether it be schools or the hospitals or the economy, that allows Afghanistan to become a more normal country.
"It's a very poor country but it doesn't need to be a country overrun by al-Qa'eda."
Brigadier General Carlos Branco, a spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, said: "Our thoughts and sincere condolences are with the family and friends of the brave soldiers who were killed today.
"These soldiers died and were wounded trying to help bring peace and security for the Afghan people."
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said the soldiers' next of kin have been informed and have requested a period of grace before further details about them are released.
The spokesman said: "It is with deep regret that we must confirm the deaths of one intelligence corps soldier and three other British soldiers in Afghanistan.
"The soldiers were taking part in a deliberate operation east of Lashkar Gah when the vehicle in which they were travelling was caught in an explosion at approximately 3.40pm yesterday.
"Tragically, three soldiers were killed in the incident and a further two wounded.
"The medical emergency response team were mobilised and evacuated all casualties to the ISAF medical facility at Camp Bastion.
"Sadly one of the two injured soldiers was pronounced dead on arrival. The fifth soldier is receiving treatment for his wounds and is in a stable condition."
Six other women soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq.
Last year Second Lieutenant Jo Dyer, 24, a friend of Prince William, was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra.
She died less than six months after passing out of Sandhurst alongside the prince.
He had sent her a good luck note when she was posted to Iraq and later fought back tears at a memorial service for her.
The latest attack in Afghanistan is the third fatal incident for British soldiers in 10 days.
On June 8 three soldiers from 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment were killed by a suicide bomber during a routine foot patrol in the Upper Sangin Valley in Helmand.
They were Private Nathan Cuthbertson, 19, from Sunderland, Private Daniel Gamble, 22, from Uckfield, East Sussex, and Private Charles David Murray, 19, from Carlisle.
Four days later, Lance Corporal James Bateman, 29, from Colchester, Essex, and Private Jeff Doherty, 20, from Southam, Warwickshire, also from 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment, were killed when they came under enemy fire on a routine foot patrol in Helmand's Upper Gereshk Valley.
Three days ago more than 1,000 prisoners, including hundreds of Taliban insurgents, escaped from the main prison in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan's biggest city, following a co-ordinated Taliban suicide attack.
NATO and Afghan forces began an operation today against Taliban insurgents who have massed in a district northwest of Kandahar.
Minor clashes erupted in the Arghandab district but there were no reports of casualties so far, said the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
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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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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
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May all of our Brit. cousins rest in the peace they so deserve..a lot of good young people, the future, gone, but not in vain, and never forgotten..the life blood of humanity...may we, as Nato get on as quick as possible and get this war over and done..soon... time, i think to really kick some butt , and big time....roll on and over them and get it done completely..ranrad
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RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
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Mike Blais
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Canadians take back villages seized by Taliban
Operation by government and NATO forces regains control over towns in the Arghandab district
GRAEME SMITH
With a report from Associated Press
June 19, 2008
Canadian troops and their allies regained at least two villages yesterday in their cautious advance up the Arghandab river valley, securing territory seized by the Taliban during a stunning offensive earlier in the week.
Helicopter gunships fired into the thick foliage and explosions thudded in the valley as hundreds of Afghan soldiers crossed the river with the support of Canadian and U.S. forces.
Two Afghan soldiers were reported killed. The insurgents stubbornly defended the village of Tabin, about 10 kilometres northwest of Kandahar city, until early evening while suffering what their opponents described as dozens of casualties.
The Afghan Defence Ministry said more than 20 Taliban fighters were killed yesterday in NATO air strikes in Tabin and 16 more were killed in the village of Khohak. Twelve other militants were killed in fighting in Maiwand, a separate district also in Kandahar province.
The governor of Kandahar, Asadullah Khalid, said the Taliban had controlled 10 towns in the Arghandab district, but government and NATO forces took back four of them.
Mr. Khalid said armoured vehicles finally rolled through Tabin late in the day, and he proudly declared that all of Arghandab district's police outposts remained standing.
"So many Taliban came to this district and they didn't even take one checkpost," Mr. Khalid said sarcastically by telephone.
Several villages north of the river appeared to remain in Taliban control last night. But Colonel Jamie Cade, deputy commander of Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, said the pro-government forces are taking ground.
"By the end of the evening, we were firmly in control," Col. Cade said, in an interview near midnight local time.
It was a fearful night for local residents. Hundreds, perhaps even thousands, have fled to the city in hopes of avoiding battles. But even within the city limits, both Afghan government officials and Taliban spokesmen were telling people to remain indoors after 10 p.m. to avoid getting caught in urban skirmishing. British paratroopers have been summoned from outlying districts to patrol the streets, while Canadian soldiers manned a newly constructed outpost inside a soccer stadium on the south side of the downtown.
Two Western officials based in Afghanistan said it's a bad sign that NATO requires so much firepower to maintain a basic modicum of security in the largest city of the south.
"The insurgents are forcing NATO to respond to their agenda," a security official in Kabul said. "People are pretty freaked out, and rightfully so."
After a spectacular Taliban attack set free hundreds of prisoners from Sarpoza jail on Friday, many local residents later concluded that the jailbreak was only a diversion to allow hundreds of armed fighters a way of slipping into the strategic district of Arghandab. Following the same logic, some Kandaharis suggested yesterday that the Arghandab attack may itself have been a feint, designed to draw attention away from an impending attack on the city from the south.
The Taliban stoked the sense of paranoia, issuing a warning that suicide bombers had been set loose in the city to attack NATO forces and installations. Many aid agencies in Kandahar are under lockdown, with staff kept indoors as a precaution.
NATO continued to play down the seriousness of the situation, continuing a public-relations approach used since the crisis started.
"The number of insurgents reported in Arghandab district in recent days has proven to be greatly exaggerated," NATO said in a statement.
The clearing operation in Arghandab started at 6 a.m. local time yesterday, and is expected to continue for three days, the statement added.
A NATO spokesman blamed the insurgents for spreading false rumours about the size of their force in Arghandab, but, in fact, the largest estimates of Taliban strength came from local politicians such as Haji Mohammed Qassam, a provincial council member.
Mr. Qassam said yesterday he stands by his estimate that 600 insurgents had infiltrated Arghandab, armed with light weapons and more dangerous items such as 80-millimetre recoilless rifles. Fighting continued into the night, he said, and has not stopped in villages such as Tabin that have been claimed by the government.
A Taliban commander reached by telephone said the government only controlled the villages of Tabin and Kohak "for a few minutes" and added that the insurgents are enjoying the co-operation of villagers and even a prominent local police officer.
But the Afghan official responsible for the district, Haji Ghulam Farooq, said the insurgents are already retreating.
"They are running away now, to the north of Arghandab and we want to surround them and prevent them from escaping," Mr. Farooq said.
"All the villages are empty of villagers," he said, so no one was injured or killed."
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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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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Hundreds of Taliban killed in battle
Doug Schmidt, Canwest News Service Published: Thursday, June 19, 2008
A Canadian soldier keeps watch over the valley in the Arghandabd district of the southern city of Kandahar, June 19, 2008.Ismail Sameem/ReutersA Canadian soldier keeps watch over the valley in the Arghandabd district of the southern city of Kandahar, June 19, 2008.
ARGHANDAB DISTRICT, Afghanistan -- Hundreds of Taliban fighters have been killed or wounded after two days of fierce fighting over a strategic area just northwest of Kandahar City that insurgents had taken over at the start of the week.
By Thursday, all that remained was the mopping up of small scattered pockets of resistance, jubilant political leaders and Afghan and Canadian military commanders told reporters from a mountainside perch overlooking the entire battlefield in a wide river valley.
"This will give them a good lesson," Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said, referring to Taliban insurgents. Mr. Khalid said residents who had fled the area when Taliban infiltrated from the mountains to the north will be allowed to return in the days ahead.
First, though, Afghan authorities have to clear out landmines and roadside bombs planted by the insurgents, and fix destroyed bridges and culverts, he said. Residents are clamouring to get back after the fighting interrupted the important harvest period in the agriculturally rich valley, and some farmers have already been passing through checkpoints to get back to their crops and livestock.
Military officials did not want to divulge any numbers. Mr. Khalid, however, said there were no civilians deaths, but two Afghan National Army soldiers died. They were among the more than 1,000 government and coalition troops who launched an assault across the Arghandab River Wednesday morning.
"The enemy is defeated, but the enemy is still present," said Canada's Joint Task Force Afghanistan commander Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson. He said some of the insurgents had escaped the fight into adjoining districts.
"I'm encouraged by what I saw," Gen. Thompson said of the Afghan-led operation that saw Canadians and other NATO forces assume a supportive battle role, including providing helicopter gunship cover.
Gen. Thompson said Arghandab, while on the doorstep of the Taliban's birth city, is "not a friendly area to the Taliban" and that Afghan forces were assisted with intelligence from locals who wanted the invaders out.
The Taliban had perhaps hoped that a series of recent assassinations of local leaders might have eased the way for its fighters to move in and retake control of an area that has always been an essential conduit for invaders targeting Kandahar City, Afghanistan's second-largest city.
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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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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
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Hmmm, and i wonder?? But i nust say , great work you guys and gals...i hope the message will soon get to the rank and file of the Taliban, and they will put down their weapons for good and go home.. and live and work alongside the majority...i hope!!! ranrad
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RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
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Mike Blais
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Military training underway
Published Friday June 20th, 2008
Officials at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown say they will be conducting a series of training sessions until June 27 in and around Fredericton and Oromocto, featuring armoured vehicles and soldiers in full gear.
The training is part of simulating the urban and semi-urban landscapes of Kandahar province, Afghanistan, where members of the second battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment will be deployed in August.
Gagetown officials say no live or fake ammunition will be used during the training, and the training shouldn't pose a significant disturbance to the public.
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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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Suicide bomber ambushes military convoy, killing 6
By NOOR KHAN – 1 hour ago
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber attacked a military convoy as it drove through a town in southern Afghanistan Friday, killing five civilians and one soldier from the U.S.-led coalition, officials said.
Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, the police chief of Helmand province, said the lone bomber, who was on foot, struck as the vehicles were passing a market area in the town of Gereshk on Friday morning.
Andiwal initially reported 10 civilians killed, but said later that city officials on the scene had given him mistaken information. He said the five civilian victims included two children. Four more civilians were wounded, he said.
Lt. Col. Paul Fanning, a spokesman for the U.S.-led force in Afghanistan, said one of its troops also was killed. He declined to release the victim's nationality.
The blast came a day after a shooting incident in which two soldiers from the separate U.S.-led coalition were fatally wounded in Helmand. An explosion killed four British troops in the province on Tuesday.
Recent fighting in Helmand and neighboring Kandahar province has demonstrated the resilience of the Taliban-led insurgency, more than six years after a U.S.-led invasion drove the militia from power.
Afghanistan's international backers last week pledged more than $21 billion in additional aid, but stressed that it needed to be spent better to bolster an Afghan government beset by corruption and still with limited authority.
On Friday, NATO and the Afghan troops were rounding off an operation to counter insurgents who had infiltrated a fertile valley within striking distance of Kandahar city, the Taliban's former capital.
The Afghan Defense Ministry said Thursday that the forces had retaken some 10 villages in the Arghandab district and killed 56 insurgents, many of them foreigners — an apparent reference to militants based in neighboring Pakistan. Two Afghan soldiers and one civilian also died.
But Kandahar provincial Gov. Asadullah Khalid said Friday that the insurgent death toll was over 100. He said villagers reported that some militants had spoken the Pashto dialect of tribes from across the border in Pakistan.
"We want to tell the Taliban, especially the Pakistani Taliban, that if they come again they will get the same treatment," Khalid said.
On Friday, an Associated Press reporter saw 19 corpses, some of them missing limbs, of what officials said were militants lying in a pomegranate orchard in Manara, a village in Arghandab.
Officials pointed to a yard-deep crater in a nearby field and to broken and scorched trees that they said were the result of an airstrike.
NATO said the operation had banished any threat to Kandahar and would help reassure Afghans appalled at the embarrassing mass escape of Taliban prisoners from a city jail last week. But the alliance also sought to downplay the insurgents' hold on the area.
"No large formation of insurgents were met or spotted. Only minor incidents occurred," alliance spokesman Maj. Gen. Carlos Branco said. "The insurgents who were there were evidently not in the numbers or with the foothold that they have claimed."
Hundreds of families who fled the lush, orchard-strewn valley that begins just 10 miles from the city can safely return, the alliance said.
Din Mohammed, a farmer walking back to Manara on Friday with 12 family members, said Taliban fighters had been bent on combat.
"They said they wanted to fight the Afghan and foreign forces. I asked them what should I do, but they said they didn't care, so I left everything — my land, my possessions, my animals," Mohammed said.
"Last night I heard on the radio that the Taliban were either dead or gone, so we came home," he said.
Afghan officials had said that some 400 insurgents swept into Arghandab, though NATO insisted that the numbers were smaller and had sought in vain to persuade residents not to flee the region.
Still, the alliance sent 600 British and Canadian troops to support a larger Afghan force, many of whom had been airlifted from the capital, Kabul.
NATO and Afghan officials said ground troops were moving methodically through the area on the east bank of the Arghandab River, wary of bombs and keen to avoid civilian casualties. Mark Laity, another NATO spokesman, said Thursday that mopping-up operations in Arghandab would continue "for a little while yet."
Confidence in the government and foreign forces was badly shaken last week when a bold Taliban attack on the Kandahar prison freed 900 inmates, including 400 Taliban fighters.
"We know that after recent events like the jailbreak there is concern about our capabilities. This was a fast and very effective response and I think something that all Afghans can take great heart from," Laity said.
Associated Press writers Stephen Graham and Rahim Faiez in Kabul contributed to this report.
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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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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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When the smoke cleared in the Arghandab valley
GRAEME SMITH
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
June 21, 2008 at 12:17 AM EDT
MANARA, AFGHANISTAN — A stench of death wafted up from piles of bodies, festering in the summer heat of the Arghandab valley. Afghan soldiers held cloths over their faces, pointed to a charred blast site nearby, and described the corpses as the bombed remnants of an invading Taliban force much larger than the Canadian military has estimated.
Kandahar Governor Asadullah Khalid brought a group of local journalists, and one foreign reporter, to the heaped carnage in the village of Manara, about 10 kilometres north of Kandahar city, as part of a broader struggle to define the week of chaos in this province.
After days of responding to emergencies, first to a Taliban raid that freed hundreds of prisoners from a city jail on June 13, and then a short-lived sweep by armed insurgents into a dozen villages north of the city, top officials finally had a moment of relative quiet to reflect on what happened – and to argue over their wildly differing interpretations.
All authorities agree that the Taliban have abandoned Arghandab district in the past two days. But there is major disagreement about the size of the Taliban force that infiltrated this strategic swath of farmland, why they invaded, and what, if anything, they achieved.
Brigadier-General Denis Thompson, the senior Canadian commander in Kandahar, met Friday with French, U.S. and Canadian officers in charge of marshalling hundreds of Afghan forces into regular patrols of the district in coming days, as they search for roadside bombs and try to ensure the villages are safe enough for residents to go home.
The Afghan government continues to warn thousands of villagers they should stay away from the north side of the Arghandab River, although NATO issued a statement on Thursday saying the region is secure enough for their return.
“They're gone,” Gen. Thompson said, referring to the Taliban, as he waved his hand across a map of the district.
A French officer, sitting on a canvas cot in the shade of a troop carrier, gave the Canadian commander a puzzled look. “But why did they come?” he asked.
“What you have to understand about this district is it's all one tribe, the Alokozai,” Gen. Thompson said. “They're mostly pro-government. So this was the Taliban demonstrating to the tribe that they're vulnerable. It was a psychological operation, not a military operation.”
Afghan officials have described the incursion differently, saying it was a genuine – if misguided – attempt by the insurgents to threaten the provincial capital. Kandahar is the former seat of government for the Taliban, and the governor said he believes the insurgents overreached in the giddy aftermath of their successful jailbreak.
The heart of the Canadian-Afghan disagreement lies with estimates of insurgent numbers.
Gen. Thompson says no more than 100 to 150 insurgents got into Arghandab, while Mr. Khalid says they had roughly 600.
At a meeting inside Arghandab's fortified district administration buildings, the two leaders exchanged good-natured gibes. Mr. Khalid pointed to an Afghan army officer wearing a floppy sun hat, his face covered in sweat, and said the field commander had just informed him that about 200 Taliban had been killed in the recent fighting.
“Why is NATO saying only a few Taliban were there?” Mr. Khalid said.
Getting no answer, the governor pressed his point. He took a mobile phone from an assistant and showed its screen to the Canadian commander: “Look, we have photos,” he said.
The Canadian laughed. “One, two,” he said, pointing to the small screen. “That's not 200.”
Gen. Thompson tried to steer the conversation toward the need for Afghan police to take over security in the district, saying Kandahar has many other urgent priorities for Canadian troops. But the governor seemed intent on making his point, and within an hour he had summoned several journalists to join a vehicle convoy into the heart of the former battlefield.
A video monitor in the dashboard of Mr. Khalid's sport utility vehicle said the outside temperature was 41 degrees, but inside the cool interior of his luxury vehicle the governor seemed relaxed and philosophical.
Like other Afghan officials, he emphasized the role of foreign fighters in Kandahar's insurgency. The dead in Arghandab included many “Pakoolis,” he said, suggesting that sightings of insurgents wearing the flat-topped woolen pakool cap indicates a large contingent of Taliban came across the border from Pakistan's frontier region, where that style of headgear is more common among Pashtun tribesmen. Tajiks from northern Afghanistan also wear the same caps, but they play a minor role in the largely Pashtun insurgency.
He also suggested that last week's jailbreak was far too sophisticated to be planned by local insurgents.
“They were very smart, and it was a great victory for the Taliban,” Mr. Khalid said. “But I know the Taliban in this province, and they are not so smart.”
Rebuilding started Friday on the Sarpoza prison's destroyed outer wall, a Canadian official said last night, and a temporary structure is expected to be ready within five days. A permanent new gate is planned to upgrade the facility's defences, among other improvements.
Roaring to a halt near the village of Manara, the governor led a parade of visitors on a dusty hike along an irrigation ditch to a place where the trees were darkened with soot and nearby walls had crumbled.
At this spot, Mr. Khalid said, the insurgents had rushed to help a wounded Taliban commander named Mullah Shakoor. The concentration of insurgents was tracked by the foreign troops using aerial reconnaissance, he said, and they were hit by a large bomb.
So many bodies lay jumbled around the blast site, mangled and covered with flies, that it was difficult to count them. Afghan soldiers nearby estimated that perhaps 17 to 19 insurgents had died in the impact of a 225-kilogram bomb.
Mr. Khalid said the commander was among those killed, but an insurgent spokesman said Mr. Shakoor remains alive.
None of the dead insurgents were wearing pakools or gave any other sign of being foreigners.
After conferring with Afghan soldiers near the site, Mr. Khalid revised his estimate of the Taliban dead to 105.
The Afghan Defence Ministry put the death toll at 56, and NATO has not released a figure.
Mr. Khalid also pointed to green plastic containers buried at an intersection nearby, one of many explosive booby traps the Taliban installed before leaving. Soldiers had marked the roadside bombs with red spray paint.
Booming noises rang through the valley later in the day, as foreign troops removed such traps by blowing them up.
Back at the district centre, Gen. Thompson smiled grimly when informed about the dead bodies at Manara.
“Nineteen still isn't 200,” he said.
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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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Mike Blais
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Soldiers killed in Afghan blast
Four US-led coalition soldiers have been killed by a bomb explosion in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, military officials have said.
Two more soldiers were seriously wounded when a roadside bomb detonated as the men were conducting operations.
The nationalities of the soldiers were not immediately known.
Earlier this week Nato and Afghan forces said they had driven many Taleban fighters from the area during a major offensive in the province.
The operation was in response to a jailbreak staged by the Taleban from Kandahar prison earlier this month, during which at least 350 insurgents were freed.
Deadly month
Kandahar is one of the key battlegrounds of the current rebel insurgency against Afghanistan's government and troops from Nato and a US-led coalition.
Afghan officials say 56 Taleban and two Afghan troops died in the fighting on Thursday, in Arghandab district near Kandahar city, but there was no independent confirmation.
The latest incident comes a day after two other US-led soldiers were killed in separate attacks elsewhere in the country.
Nine British servicemen have also been killed since the start of June - the deadliest month this year for coalition forces, according to the US military.
The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says that in recent months the Taleban have switched their tactics using roadside bombs and suicide attacks to increasingly deadly effect.
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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
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I hope they can find a better way , in order to cut down these roadside bombs , etc....far too many losses this way...ranrad
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RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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6,000 troops urgently needed in Afghanistan: NATO
Sun Jun 22, 12:24 PM
BERLIN (Reuters) - Up to 6,000 additional troops are urgently needed in Afghanistan and a failure to deploy them will only prolong the presence of Western forces in the country, a German NATO general said on Sunday.
Egon Ramms told public radio station Deutschlandfunk that alliance members would end up paying a price later if they did not boost troop numbers now.
"We are talking about a total of 5,000, 6,000 soldiers," Ramms said. "We need these soldiers now, very soon, because we need to hold specific areas, we need to win over Afghanistan's citizens and because at some point, in 2010, 2011 or 2012 we will want to hand over responsibility to Afghan forces.
Roughly 60,000 foreign troops are in Afghanistan, most of them part of the NATO-led International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF), but security has deteriorated over the past two years.
Some 6,000 people were killed in 2007, the deadliest year since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2007.
"The troops that I don't have now could lead to delays in the withdrawal of NATO and ISAF," Ramms said. "In other words, the costs that are not being paid now will have a negative impact on the bottom line at some point."
Ramms declined to say how many additional German troops he thought were necessary, but said Germany should increase the number of troops it can send to Afghanistan from a fixed ceiling of 3,500.
The parliamentary mandate for German troops operating in Afghanistan is due to expire in October and Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung is expected to request an increase of at least 1,000 in the troop limit.
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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
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Well, doggone it , now thats news aint it Mike? How many times does this have to go round and round.. before they listen to the old Sarge ? Seems everyone knows whats needed , nobody comes forward ...well, guess thats not fair , a few countries have, and God bless them for doing whats right and of course a gutsy move...the old Gen , [ Lew } and others , you and me included. and lets not slight our own knowledge from experience, old soldiers like you and i DO KNOW whats needed..this time i hope more will listen, or we may be in the 'Stan forever , or until all hell breaks looose...and there is that risk...we all know that too..ranrad
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RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
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