Canadians in action in Afstan/Taliban's terrorist tactics

Note in 2) the apparent success of NATO strategy:

1) As far as I can see the Toronto Sun was the only paper in a major city that carried this as a separate story (Canoe.ca and Canada.com websites ran it; the Globe buried it in a report about the killing of the three soldiers):

MASUM GAR -- Canadian and Afghan soldiers killed 15 Taliban in a four-hour running battle yesterday in southern Kandahar province, military officials said.

Two Canadians and three members of the Afghan National Army suffered minor injuries in the clash. Details were not available.

Maj. Dave Quick, the officer commanding India Company, said troops raced over compounds and farmers' houses during the battle in the Zhari district. Eventually, aircraft were called in for support.

THWART EFFORTS

Quick said the goal of Operation Season was to disrupt the Taliban presence and thwart insurgent efforts to ambush Afghan police along the main highway in the region.

"It was pretty good today because we were working with the ANA," said Capt. Mark Sheppard of India Company.

"We're nice and tight working together," he said. "They're a great set of troops to fight with."

The operation was launched with the ANA after the Canadian command expressed a desire to uproot the Taliban along Hwy. 1 in an area of Zhari district called Sangsar. The area has seen a consolidation of Taliban troops in recent weeks.

LONGEST FIREFIGHT

Quick said yesterday's battle was the longest firefight his company has been in even though it was their 12th combat mission in the last month [emphasis added].

He called it a success for the ANA, which led the operation [emphasis added] with tank support from the Canadians and air support from two aircraft, as well as an attack helicopter.

Gen. Rick Hillier, Canada's chief of defence staff, said last week that strengthening the Afghan National Army was Canada's priority leading up the February 2009 deadline for the end of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan.

2) The BBC reports on a Taliban spokesman's explanation of a change of tactics:

The Taleban in Afghanistan are changing their tactics to mount more attacks on the capital, Kabul, a spokesman for the militant group has told the BBC.

The spokesman, Zabiyullah Mujahed, said Taleban were recovering after Nato had infiltrated the group and killed some of its leaders [emphasis added--so a new strategy of NATO's seems to be working, but the media are not connecting the dots].

But more people were volunteering to carry out suicide bombings, he said.

A police bus in Kabul was bombed on Sunday killing up to 35 people, in the deadliest attack there since 2001.

Mr Mujahed said the city was the next main target of the Taleban...

He added that the "independence and freedom of our country" was the goal of the Taleban and that they were repeating the same tactics used by insurgents in Iraq [emphasis added--with help from people and money from Iraq too? More dot connecting needed].

"A lot of people are coming to our suicide bombing centre to volunteer," he said.

'Tide turning'

On Wednesday Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said support for the Taleban was diminishing.

"At the moment you see the tides are turning in our favour, the Taleban have failed to materialise their so-called spring offensive, they have failed to isolate Kabul or to cut highways or to expand their area of influence," he told the BBC...

I suppose the key issue is whether the Taliban's resorting to close to pure terrorism will simply alienate them from possible Afghan support, or will succeed in convincing Afghans that it's better to give in to them.