Canadians kill up to 20 Taliban
Last Updated Sun, 30 Apr 2006 18:11:19 EDT
CBC News
Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan fought two battles with insurgents over the weekend.
No Canadians were hurt, but Maj. Todd Strickland, the deputy commander of Canada's battle group, said the Taliban suffered heavily in one engagement.
"I think there are dead. Our own assessment is between 15 and 20."
Strickland led the Canadian Forces in a second fight, a 72-hour battle in the Punjiwai district 45 kilometres southwest of Kandahar.
It started as at least 150 Canadians with Afghan soldiers and police swept the area for militants.
Several dozen were cornered against the Arghandab River.
The Canadians blocked the escape routes, used the heavy guns on their LAV III vehicles to pin down the Taliban and then called in attack helicopters.
"Throughout the night, artillery was used firing illumination rounds to keep the Taliban's heads down," Strickland told reporters. "They don't like our guns. When our guns are firing, they're not moving."
Afghan authorities said seven insurgents were killed, nine were wounded and a dozen men captured by Canadians were being interrogated.
He showed reporters marks on his LAV. The Taliban bullets just bounced off, an encouraging sign for the soldiers.
Strickland was not involved in the other battle, in Helmand province early Saturday, but briefed reporters about it.
A supply convoy consisting of two LAVs, a jeep and a large truck was headed for Forward Operating Base Robinson in the mountains when three Taliban vehicles were spotted setting up an ambush.
After confirming none of the coalition's Afghan allies was in the area, the LAVs fired at the vehicles with their 25-mm guns.
Strickland believes the fire destroyed the vehicles and probably killed the 15 to 20 occupants.
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/nation...tan060430.html
Troops endure weekend fighting in Afghanistan
Updated Sun. Apr. 30 2006 5:27 PM ET
CTV.ca News
Canadian troops engaged Taliban militants in two separate firefights over the weekend in southern Afghanistan.
Although there were no Canadian casualties, the amoured vehicle the troops were driving in bears bullet marks from the machine-gun firefight.
Maj. Todd Strickland, the deputy commander of Canada's battle group in southern Afghanistan, said Sunday the soldiers were very lucky.
"A soldier's luck is a funny thing -- sometimes you got it, sometimes you don't," Strickland said. "Yesterday we were lucky."
One of the battles, which lasted more than 72 hours, took place in the Punjiwai district, 25 kilometres southwest of Kandahar. This is the same barren stretch that was the scene of a vicious firefight that killed Afghan police officers two weeks ago.
In the second engagement, Canadian soldiers opened fire on was what thought to be a planned Taliban ambush. On Saturday, in nearby Helmand province, two Canadian LAVs fired on three trucks that had been shadowing them and their logistics convoy.
The insurgents "are opportunistic, but we continue to evolve with new skills that are better than what the Taliban can throw at us," Brig.-Gen. David Fraser told CP.
These two violent battles come after a week of relative calm following the roadside bomb attack that killed four Canadian soldiers in the Gumbad region on April 22.
The protracted Punjiwai area battle, complete with artillery and air cover, began on Thursday when the governor of the Kandahar province asked the Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry regiment to raid villages in the region.
The troops worked alongside the Afghan army and police units to corner suspected Taliban militants in the villages through as series of roadblocks.
"We had a major contact, if I can put it that way," said Strickland, who described a pitched battle with Canadian and Afghan forces trading fire with militants
American Apache attack helicopters provided air support, peppering the compounds with 30-millimetre automatic machine-gun fire.
"What can be taken as a sign of lessons learned from our previous efforts, we co-ordinated extensively with the (Afghan army) and the (police) to ensure there was no possibility of friendly fire," said Strickland, to the four Afghan officers who may have died from an American helicopter's friendly fire on Good Friday.
Although there were no casualties, three Afghan police officers were wounded, one seriously.
The following day, Canadian soldiers swept through the villages. They cleared the way for Afghan police who conducted searches of each house, urging residents to flee.
Women and children were separated from able-bodied male civilians.
Canadians held up to as many as 12 suspected Taliban fighters until Afghan police could do a more thorough interrogation.
Local authorities reported on Sunday that seven insurgents were killed and nine wounded.
It is not clear how many suspected militants died when the Canadian LAVs fired on the trucks that were following them because the armoured vehicles were forced to retreat to a defensive position.
Although an early Sunday patrol found only broken glass and tire tracks at the potential ambush site, Strickland is sure that insurgents were killed.
"Despite the absence of bodies, I think it's quite safe to assume there are dead (insurgents)," Strickland said.
"Our own estimate is between 15 and 20. There is no doubt in our mind these were Taliban. They were armed. They were manoeuvring against us, and when the platoon commander on the ground says it looks like these guys are setting up an ambush, it's a pretty safe assumption."
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