Posted on 06/12/2006 2:58:23 AM PDT by Clive
PASHMUL, Afghanistan (CP) - One week after coalition commanders claimed victory in a battle with Taliban in this area, Canadian troops were again hunting insurgents just outside of Kandahar.
Soldiers fanned out astride the main highway Monday morning in a blocking position near where a U.S. convoy was ambushed only days ago.
Up the valley, another unit of Canadians slowly swept through farm fields and mud buildings near the Arghandab River toward their comrades. The plan is to push Taliban insurgents into the jaws of a vice.
Soon radios crackled with reports of contact.
"We have small arms fire and a group of about 25 military-aged males," said the radio operator as soldiers in an LAV III plot the action on a map fixed to the armoured vehicle's bulkhead.
"This is a hot spot, that's why we are back here," said a soldier as he scanned the horizon.
"There are reports there are Taliban and Pakistanis only a few kilometres from here toward the river."
The military operation involves infantry, armour, and artillery units of the Edmonton-based Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry battle group.
They are supported by very young and very heavily armed Afghan National Police, who roar around in the back of pick-up trucks, their legs and weapons dangling over the side.
Earlier this month Lt.-Col. Ian Hope, commander of the Canadian battle group, said coalition forces had broken the back of Taliban forces in the area after bitter fighting in nearby Panjwai.
But he also warned operations would continue throughout the summer with coalition troops, including British and American forces, attacking Taliban strongholds.
His words have rang true over the past week as coalition forces engaged the insurgents in a series of violent clashes throughout southern Afghanistan.
On Thursday, coalition and Afghan troops killed 10 insurgents outside a village in the Deh Rawod District in Uruzgan Province north of Kandahar.
Last Monday, coalition forces killed more than 30 Taliban in a firefight in the nearby western Arghandab District of Zabul Province.
No Afghan or coalition soldiers were injured.
Military officials said Canadian troops were not involved in those two battles, which both occurred within 150 kilometres of Kandahar city.
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Canada ping!
Please FReepmail me to get on or off this ping list.
From the sounds of things, the Canadians are eager to shed the femmi, multi-culti, everybody loves us cuz we're so doggone nice image and want to be perceived as real men. Funny what an election and 17 muzlums can effect.
Next stop... Iran!!!
Those stupid commanders, always declaring "mission accompished". They just lie and lie and lie. When are they going to give up against the truly heroic people they face? After all, they just want to stop fighting us and live their lives in peace, watching cable TV and going to the beach on Saturdays.
Well, maybe they might attack a girls school once in a while.
Thats the Canada we know!
The nation that produced the heros of the Somme, Dieppe,
and the Stanley up!
Oh yeah, then there was that little action in Korea, and numerous Canadian volunteers who joined up with y'all for that skirmish in Viet Nam.
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