Biggest combat operation for the for the Canadian Army since the Korean War

That's a significant fact that tends to get overlooked in most of the media's coverage that focuses on the four soldiers killed. Plus the fact that the operation had considerable success. Note that the whole Royal Canadian Regiment battle group and the US Army's 2-2 Ramrods battalion seem to have been involved, in roughly equal numbers, plus an Afghan National Army battalion.

On the final day of a massive military operation at the centre of Taliban territory in the relatively lush Zhari district west of Kandahar City, a platoon from November Company conducted a final sweep of one of the many sparsely populated villages.

The collection of mud-walled compounds had already been searched for Taliban insurgents, weapons, and the ingredients for improvised bombs that have turned Kandahar's roads into death traps.

The Canadian troops were preparing to have a quick meeting with those few local Afghans who remained behind after their neighbours fled months and years ago to the safer ground of the city or to districts where the insurgents have not yet penetrated.

They wanted to see “anything more that needs to be done, any particular danger that they are afraid of, and get a sense of the atmospherics,” Brigadier General Jonathan Vance said Saturday during a briefing for reporters about Operation Jaley – the four-day mission that saw 2,000 coalition troops march through the Taliban staging ground.

“The team that was mounting to do that, moved towards the village and they stepped on an IED,” said Brig.-Gen. Vance.

The blast, which could be heard many kilometres away, left two Canadians and an Afghan interpreter dead and five others injured. It occurred just two hours before another explosion killed two more Canadians and wounded three others who were taking part in the same operation in the Shah Wali Kot district north of Kandahar City.

Canadian soldiers from the NATO-led coalition run for cover after an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) explosion during a mission in the Taliban stronghold of Zhari district in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, on Friday [March 20] . (Reuters)

When members of the Canadian forces die, said Brig.-Gen. Vance, it is important to explain what happened because “these soldiers were in the process of doing something very valuable.”

Operation Jaley, for the most part, was declared a success by Brig.-Gen. Vance and other Canadian commanders.

Canadians fighters teamed with members of the American battalion under their command as well as Afghan troops and U.S. special forces [emphasis added] to disrupt the ability of the Taliban to mount attacks from the area that is no longer under the control of the pro-government military coalition.

[2-2 Infantry (U.S. Army)

Commander: Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Hurlbut

Regimental Sergeant Major: Command Sergeant-Major Overstreet

“2-2 Infantry” is the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division (the Big Red One) from Fort Hood, Texas, now under the operational control of the Commander, Task Force Kandahar. Augmenting the ISAF force in Kandahar Province by about 800 soldiers, 2-2 Infantry was declared ready for operations and assumed responsibility for Maywand District, its designated area of operations, on 27 August 2008.]

The planning for the mission, the size of which one high-ranking officer said had not been mounted by Canadian troops since the Korean War, began three weeks ago with the agreement on the head of the Afghan forces [emphasis added], said Brig.-Gen Vance.

It stretched across a wide swath of the province where the military determined that a “disruptive effect” was needed in advance of what is shaping up to be a fighting season that could see many lives lost.

Disruptive operations have a short life-span, cautioned the general. More disruptions will be needed, he said.

But, throughout the four days that the coalition forces were on the ground, the material to make between 30 and 50 improvised bombs was discovered, three Taliban medical aid posts were overrun, and five insurgents were captured. They remain in Canadian custody until their status, and the threat they pose, can be fully assessed.

The U.S. battalion took its own prisoners who will be handled by the “American national net, said the general. Ten other people had been detained during a special forces operation in the same region few days earlier, some of who were subsequently released In the Arghandab, a district that has been less vulnerable to the Taliban influx, soldiers participating in Operation Jaley were joined by local police and Canadian police mentors to find the “very IED makers and those insurgents who may have been involved in the IED strike on the 3rd of March,” said Brig.-Gen. Vance. That blast killed three Canadian troops.

In fact, very little was found in that area, a result the general attributed to the success of previous operations and the local rejection of the Taliban.

In the rest of the sweep, particularly in Zhari, Canadian and Afghan soldiers came under repeated insurgent attack.

“We caused far more insurgent casualties – dead and wounded – that they caused to use,” said Brig.-Gen. Vance.

The operation, he said, provided a vast amount of knowledge about how the insurgents work in that area. It caused “an impairment” in their ability to create and deploy their bombs. And “we gave the insurgents the impression that we can go wherever we want, whenever we want.”

That, said the general, discredits the insurgent cause in the eyes of the local population.

On important aspect of Jaley, he said, was that the Afghan army conducted part of the operation completely on its own as a stand-alone force [emphasis added]. “These are warriors and they are defending their own country.”

Despite the successes, four Canadian lives were lost [even "successful operations" on a significant scale usually do have such consequences].

Killed in the Zhari explosion were Master Corporal Scott Francis Vernelli, from the 3rd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment based in Petawawa, Ont., and Corporal Tyler Crooks, from the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment.

Killed in the Shah Wali Kot explosion were Trooper Jack Bouthillier and Trooper Corey Joseph Hayes, both members of the Royal Canadian Dragoons Reconnaissance Squadron, 3rd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment.

The injured soldiers were evacuated by helicopter to the medical facility at Kandahar Airfield. One was flown to Germany for further treatment. They are all reported to be in good condition, and their names will not be released...

More:

...
Brig.-Gen. Jonathan Vance predicted insurgents have been set back in their preparations by what was, in military-speak, a disruption operation, something intended to break up an enemy's ability to fight.

"This is one step in many on the way to securing the elections for the 20th of August, the presidential elections [emphasis added]," he said Saturday...

Disruption campaigns rarely result in victory, rather they are meant to buy time and in this case, the general warned, the effect will be short-lived.

"I would suspect that disruption would last for about a month, such that it will take a little bit of time to get their feet back under them to be able to commence operations again," Vance told reporters, referencing a map pinned to the back of an armoured fighting vehicle.

"I believe the last resulting of this will be forcing the insurgents to work much harder in recreating their (improvised explosive) capacity."

More such counter-insurgency offensives are planned throughout the spring and summer [emphasis added]...

Taliban command centres and bomb facilities were the main targets of raid, involving over 2,000 Canadian and American troops, the largest such combined operation the two countries have undertaken together since the Korean War.

A kandak, or battalion, of Afghan troops also took part, clearing the way for Canadian troops to push to their objectives [see here for Canadian progress in training kandaks]...

As to why more such offensives are necessary:

Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan face a season of heavy fighting against the Taliban this spring, two security experts say, a fact that was made clear after two separate IED attacks killed four Canadian soldiers on Friday...

Such operations are deemed necessary to cripple insurgent activity, particularly in the south where Canadian troops are stationed, and spring marks the time of year when that activity increases, says security expert Alan Bell.

Supply lines re-open after the cold winter and insurgents begin moving freely again through the country, and they have to plant IEDs and other roadside bombs to take on coalition troops...

It is yet unclear if a planned influx of about 17,000 American soldiers will help or hinder the security situation in Afghanistan.

The increased presence of U.S. troops in the country should help coalition forces crack down more heavily on Taliban activity, but it may also boost insurgent attacks on foreign troops...

Those last two sentences are just so typical of our journalism, with the insinuation that all those US troops might only make things worse. Of course there will be more Taliban attacks if there are more targets for them--unless the Taliban just basically give up for the meantime. But--if the Taliban can be hurt a lot more than now, if a lot more territory made more (not totally) secure, and if a lot more Afghans feel their own security has improved--that is a Good Thing. (Update: Paul at Celestial Junk makes points along similar lines).

As to why we need to make Afghans feel more secure (the main long-term goal of the mission, and the key to "winning"):

Study: Afghans feel more threatened
Harper not surprised by new findings

A new study that finds Afghans feel more threatened by violence than they did in 2004 comes as no surprise given the serious security issues in the war-torn country, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday.

The findings in the research by human-rights and aid agencies that ordinary Afghans are losing hope reinforce the need for Canada and other countries to help make the country safer, he said.

"There has been a lot of data indicating that security challenges in parts of Afghanistan, including the part that Canada is in, remain serious," Harper said.

"So, I’m not surprised we would see those statistics. It speaks once again to why Canadians are there."

The study by the Afghan Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium released this week found Afghans believe the country is racked by rising violence and corruption and see their society slipping backward.

Among key findings: 63 per cent believe security has deteriorated since 2004. That contrasts sharply with the optimism seen five years ago, when 75 per cent said they believed security had improved in the previous year...