Canadian forces fight Afghan war inch by inch

ZHARI, Afghanistan — The company of Canadian soldiers set off from the small base in southern Afghanistan a few hours before dawn. Combat boots crunching along the wide plains of the Kandahar desert, they moved slowly in a long line into the moonless black.

No one said a word as they picked their way across an old cemetery. The soldiers strained to hear any sound of approaching insurgents above the slap of funeral flags in the crisp autumn wind.

Someone at the head of the line motioned them forward. A few dozen yards later, they stopped again.

The soldiers' target, a Taliban bomb-supply compound, was a little more than two miles away. But it took the 200-plus troops about three hours to march from the cemetery to the insurgent stronghold. That is the way the war is being fought in southern Afghanistan: inch by inch.

The pace is frustratingly slow for many of the 2,500 Canadian troops fighting to break the Taliban's hold on Kandahar. The insurgents move swiftly under cover through much of the province.

But for the Canadians, every tactical wiggle in Kandahar involves days of planning and dozens — sometimes hundreds — of soldiers.

Since taking charge of security there in 2005, Canadian forces have mounted several major offensives aimed at driving the Taliban out of Zhari and the neighboring district of Panjwai. Yet Taliban fighters maintain a stranglehold on much of the area.

Skirmishes in the province this year alone account for about a quarter of Canadian casualties in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001.

The Canadian force is less than a tenth the size of the 33,000-member U.S. force. Nonetheless, it is responsible for maintaining security in one of the most historically fractious parts of the country.

Meanwhile, the troops are also struggling to find their footing in their first large-scale combat operation since the Korean War.

"We've had to play a bit of catch-up when it comes to getting into a big fight. We've traditionally been seen as peacekeepers," said Capt. Shawn Dumbreck, who leads one of several Canadian platoons in western Kandahar. "When the conflict started, our fighting skills were obviously there, but there was a steep learning curve to really get into the combat mission."

In Zhari, a mix of rocky desert and fertile farmland, the Taliban fighters wage their war largely from the deep gravel culverts lining Highway 1, Kandahar's main transit route.

Roadside bombs along the highway account for about half of the 97 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001. This year, the death toll has reached a record high, with 23 troops killed through September, many of them in Zhari and Panjwai.

As a result, the soldiers go to great lengths to avoid possible booby traps.

"Frankly, it slows us down, because if I'm not confident a road has been swept, then the soldiers will head straight into the desert and drive across country," said Brig. Gen. Denis Thompson, the top Canadian commander in Kandahar. "It takes forever to get from A to B because you can't travel on a road."

One well-placed bomb in a culvert along the highway can easily result in many casualties. And those casualties over time increase pressure on Canadian politicians to end involvement in a war that is widely unpopular in their country.

Like many of the 39 nations that make up the coalition forces in Afghanistan, Canada has faced repeated demands from the United States to shore up the flagging Western military mission. But Prime Minister Stephen Harper has vowed to pull the majority of Canadian troops out of Afghanistan by 2011.

With the Canadian casualty count mounting in areas near Highway 1, the pressure to bring the restive province under control has never been higher.

But control of Kandahar, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban, has proved elusive. In June, Taliban insurgents attacked the province's main prison, near Kandahar city, freeing an estimated 1,200 inmates. About 400 of those who fled the prison were thought to be Taliban fighters.

Four days later, Canadian and Afghan troops mounted a counteroffensive after locals reported seeing dozens of armed insurgents massing in Arghandab, a valley district near Zhari and Panjwai. Since then, nine Canadian soldiers have been killed in insurgent attacks — all in Zhari and Panjwai.

"The bottom line in Zhari and Panjwai is that we own about a third of those districts. The other two-thirds aren't owned by the Taliban, but I call them contested," Thompson said. "If you're out there, you're going to get into a scrap. There are firefights, and there's combat every day in Zhari and Panjwai."