More on US Army taking over from CF in areas of Kandahar province

Earlier:

Trying to build in a district at Kandahar

Now:

'Model' Canadian village handed over to U.S. in Afghanistan [note Canadian civilians and some CF staying on]


Canadian Forces Maj. Mark Popov (R) and his U.S. Army replacement Lt.-Col. John Paganini pass a Kuchi nomad camp on an introductory patrol for Paganini through the former Canadian "model village" of Deh-e-Bagh, Afghanistan on April 20, 2010.
Photograph by: Ethan Baron, Canwest News Service

DEH-E-BAGH, Afghanistan — Canada's highly praised "model village" in Dand district is being handed over to U.S. army control, as Canadian combat troops move to volatile Panjwaii district.

The American surge of thousands more soldiers into Afghanistan is enabling Canadian battle troops to leave Dand for Panjwaii, where the Taliban are firmly entrenched just west of the Canadian front lines and NATO's upcoming Kandahar province offensive is expected to be especially violent.

"The influx of troops is allowing Canada to better concentrate its forces to really saturate one district," said Canadian Forces Maj. Mark Popov, commander of the outgoing soldiers in Deh-e-Bagh and the handful of other Dand outposts. "There are still a lot of areas in Panjwaii where the insurgents operate freely. And there are areas of Panjwaii where unfortunately some pretty hard combat operations will be needed to clear them out."

In Dand, development and governance-building work by the Canadian International Development Agency and the Foreign Affairs Department will continue under U.S. protection after the combat soldiers leave.

"The civilian contributions to the stabilization effort in Dand remain the same," said Ben Rowswell, the Representative of Canada in Kandahar.

The Canadian military's civil-military co-operation officers, construction corps and police trainers will also continue to operate in Dand...

More on Deh-e-Bagh here from October 2009.

Update thought: Will Canadian government civilians stay in the field--or work in Kandahar City itself in any numbers--after the CF's 2011 pullout? Related:

Our vanishing Provincial Reconstruction Team at Kandahar?