Gen. James Jones, NATO's supreme allied
commander, says Canadian forces did 'an
absolutely superb job' in the latest offensive. (CBC)
Posted on 09/20/2006 11:50:28 AM PDT by GMMAC
Canadian-led offensive may have
killed 1,500 Taliban fighters
CBC News
Last Updated Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:07:40 EDT
The U.S. general who heads all NATO military forces says a two-week campaign that cost five Canadian lives in southern Afghanistan may have wiped out half of the "hard-core" Taliban fighters in the country.
Gen. James Jones, NATO's supreme allied
commander, says Canadian forces did 'an
absolutely superb job' in the latest offensive. (CBC)
The Canadian-led push, Operation Medusa, ended on Sept. 15 when Taliban forces stopped fighting and slipped away, Gen. James L. Jones said on Wednesday.
The Taliban "suffered a tactical defeat in the area where they chose to stand and fight" and got "a very powerful message … that they have no chance of winning militarily," he told reporters at the Pentagon.
NATO estimates that "somewhere in the neighbourhood of around 1,000" Taliban fighters were killed, and the number could be higher, he said. "If you said 1,500 it wouldn't surprise me."
Half of Taliban force may be dead
He said he thought there were 3,000 to 4,000 regular Taliban fighters before Operation Medusa. In response to a question, he agreed that he was saying that one-third to one-half of them may have been killed.
Most of the combat units in Canada's Afghanistan contingent took part in the operation. Four Canadians were killed in the fighting and one died when U.S. jets mistakenly strafed Canadian troops.
On Monday, four more Canadians died in an attack by a suicide bomber on a bicycle. They were on patrol in the Panjwaii district of Kandahar province, where the Taliban had ostensibly been defeated the previous week.
The bombing brought Canada's death toll in Afghanistan since 2002 to 36 soldiers and one diplomat.
Canada currently has more than 2,000 soldiers in Afghanistan.
Jones said it is unclear how quickly the Taliban dead will be replaced with fresh fighters. He stressed that he was not counting casual, short-term recruits. "They bring along a lot of other weekend warriors if they can pay for them. [They] say, 'Do you want to make 200 euros or $200?' Actually, they pay dollars."
Nor are Taliban forces the only problem, he added. "There's also the al-Qaeda remnant, which is considerably less. Then there's the [opium] cartels with their own armies for security of their convoys, and this is a problem. Then you have the corruption, the criminal elements, the tribal fighting that goes on. So it's a lot of disparate groups."
High praise for Canada
He praised the countries that contributed troops to Operation Medusa.
"I think the governments have been very strong, particularly Canada. Canadian leadership has been very, very strong in this. Canadian forces did an absolutely superb job, augmented by their British colleagues, a Dutch company that came in and two companies from the U.S."
But he said he was not claiming total victory over the Taliban. "We have disturbed the hornets' nest and the hornets are swarming.… It remains to be seen how much more capacity they have for this kind of fight."
Copyright ©2006 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - All Rights Reserved
Good work Canada!
Go Canada!
PING!
That's great! Perhaps they could come stateside and wipe out the Taliban here.
WOW, great news. What an asset we have in them. Canada is coming around.
Never happen......Kennedy would move to Peshawar
Way to go! Kill 'em all!
"That's great! Perhaps they could come stateside and wipe out the Taliban here."
Yes, Detroit is not that far.
Wow, way to go Canada!!!!!
Well done. Don't give the bastards a chance to suffer under the cruelty of Geneva Convention endorsed interrogation. They can talk to the devil instead.
Go, Canucks. Finally, a Canadian team I can root for.
300 to 1 kill ratio is pretty darn good!
Out-FREAKING-standing. Good on ya Harper!
Bravo, Canada!!!
Q: What do you call 1500 dead Taliban scumbags?
A: A good start!
Excellent work by the canucks. Hope they press on and kill 'em all.
Fantastic! ..we could use them here to slame the taliban located at the DNC, MSM and Hollywood.
oh forgot, there is also presently a contingent of terrorists located at the UN in NYC, if they hurry they can get them now.
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