US really taking lead in Kandahar City...

...though under Canadian command:

U.S. ratchets up contribution to Canadian task force
Nearly 1,000 troops -- 10 times more than expected -- will join mentors

Canada's task force in Kandahar is to grow by nearly 1,000 soldiers this month as U.S. troops pour into the provincial capital to work alongside Canadians mentoring Afghan police.

The move was confirmed by Canadian and American civilian officials based in the violence-plagued southern province. It is part of what may be the first overseas civilian-military co-operation agreement signed between Canada and the U.S. since the Second World War.

"Our ration of security personnel, Afghans and coalition, has got much better," Ken Lewis, Canada's top diplomat in Kandahar, said in welcoming the new arrangements.

The original plan, announced a few weeks ago by a senior RCMP representative in Kabul, was to add a company of about 100 U.S. military police to Canadian Brig.-Gen. Jonathan Vance's Task Force Kandahar. It has since been decided that an entire battalion of military police will team up with Canadian military and civilian police mentors in Afghanistan's second-largest city, Lewis said.

The latest addition of U.S. forces in Kandahar City is a clear signal that the precarious security situation in the south has become a major source of concern for U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who commands the more than 100,000 NATO forces in Afghanistan.

With the arrival of the U.S. mentors, Vance's task force will swell to nearly 4,500 troops. It already includes a U.S. infantry battalion, integrated last summer [so almost half the troops under Brig.-Gen. Vance's command will actually be American].

Three battalions of a U.S. Army Stryker Brigade were also added in Kandahar this summer [actually only two to focus on Kandahar province, see following link]. They remain under U.S. command, having taken over areas in the northeast and far west of Kandahar from Canada.

The Afghan National Army, which has been receiving training from Canadian and U.S. troops, has also increased its presence in Kandahar to six kandaks, or battalions, recently.

At the same time, the civilian component of Canada's effort in Kandahar has increased over the past year to about 100, mostly police...

Update: An interesting article by Joshua Foust (of Registan.net) who argues that much more attention must be paid to the countryside:

What Does 'Securing the People' Mean in Afghanistan?

But if Kandahar City became effectively untenable the countryside would almost be an irrelevancy. Meanwhile the CF are trying to do a real bit for some people outside the city in Dand district (more here, here and here--but it's interesting that at the last link, from April, the ANA were the "lead"; they are not mentioned in the CP story today).