Canadian Troops Discover Bomb, Exchange Gunfire in Kandahar City

By Alexander Panetta, THE CANADIAN PRESS

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Canadian soldiers discovered a 27-kilogram bomb and exchanged gunfire with Taliban militants late Tuesday night amid stepped-up operations in Kandahar city.

One half of a Canadian platoon was fired upon tonight – without any injuries – while the rest of its vehicles passed over a culvert where a crude bomb was discovered and disarmed an hour earlier by Afghan police.

The events are part of a night-time patrol of the country’s second-largest city, which has seen a beefed-up military presence amid increased insurgent activity in the area.

The Canadians were out to demonstrate their presence at specific spots deemed high-risk targets for insurgent attack.

The possible targets they visited include: a power station near where the bomb was found, the governor’s residence, and the city jail which has already been decimated in a rebel attack.

Canadian scanned the perimeter of the prison and determined that – contrary to reports – there had been only one breach in the prison walls during a spectacular attack last week.

They found no evidence of a hole in the rear wall – but parked their convoy beside the twisted wreckage of police vehicles in front of the building, which now has a gaping hole wide enough to accommodate a Boeing 747.

The assault on Sarposa prison has touched off a frenzy of activity in recent days that has included a militant strike on numerous villages just outside Kandahar city.

Taliban rebels have destroyed bridges, planted bombs and laid claim to villages along the Arghandab river, but Canadian officials are downplaying fears that a major battle was about to erupt on the doorsteps of Kandahar city.

Claims that hundreds of Taliban fighters have taken over the villages are greatly exaggerated, the officials said Tuesday.

The Taliban blew open the main prison in Kandahar and freed hundreds of captured insurgents last Friday. The successful raid emboldened the insurgency and panicked people in Kandahar city and its surrounding areas.

The Pentagon dismissed ominous predictions that the Taliban would attack Kandahar city itself. “In talking to our folks, they do not have any imminent concern that Kandahar is about to fall to the Taliban,” said U.S. Defence Department press secretary Geoff Morrell.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, “has moved or is moving a battalion down to that area” after the prison break, Morrell told a briefing in Washington. U.S. forces are providing aircraft to help secure the prison and round up escapees, he said.

Canadian officials did not dispute reports of an increased insurgent presence in the Arghandab valley, about 15 kilometres northwest of Kandahar, the second-largest city in Afghanistan.

They said a more accurate description of the situation was that the Taliban have entered a handful of villages to make their presence felt, and tried to intimidate people into supporting them.

But the Taliban do not control the area, said Canadian and NATO officials.

Lt.-Col. Dave Corbould, commanding officer of the battle group of 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, said coalition troops have beefed up their presence in Arghandab.

The show of force by Afghan, Canadian and other NATO forces has taken place without major incident, he said, “and it is clear that Kandahar city remains firmly under the control of the Afghan government and its people.”

“Indeed, having just returned from the Arghandab district centre, I can tell you that there were no obvious signs of insurgent activity,” Corbould said.

“While this does not mean the Taliban are not there, they just do not appear to have the foothold that they have apparently claimed.”

NATO also issued a statement that cast doubt on prospects of a major battle. NATO spokesman Mark Laity said the coalition has conducted a patrol through the region “and found no evidence that militants control the area.”

Still, a sense of insecurity has gripped Kandahar city and the surrounding areas.

Many villagers were reported to have abandoned their farms and fled, worried that battles could break out now that Canadian and Afghan troops have moved in to confront the Taliban threat.

In a telephone interview with The Canadian Press, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi said 450 Taliban captives escaped in Friday night’s prison break and all have joined Taliban units in various districts and provinces.

Ahmadi denied that any of the escapees had gone to Pakistan. “We need these 450 Taliban to jihad here,” he said.

Ahmadi claimed more than 500 Taliban were in the Arghandab. “We are going to start an operation by the name IBRAT, which stands for (Learn a lesson from past deeds and doings).”

The Afghan army, which flew four planeloads of government soldiers to Kandahar on Tuesday from the capital, Kabul, said 300 to 400 militants had gathered in Arghandab, many of them foreigners.

Haji Agha Lalai, a provincial council member, told The Associated Press militants were destroying bridges and planting mines in hopes of repelling attacks from Afghan and NATO forces.

Laity said 700 Afghan army troops have moved from Kabul to Kandahar to deal with the Arghandab threat.

NATO aircraft dropped leaflets in Arghandab telling residents to stay indoor. “Keep your families safe. When there is fighting near your home, stay inside while ANSF (Afghan security forces) defeat the enemies of Afghanistan,” Laity quoted the leaflet as saying.

The AP reported that more than 700 families – some 4,000 people – had fled the Arghandab district.

“Last night the people were afraid, and families on tractors, trucks and taxis fled the area,” said Sardar Mohammad, a police officer manning a checkpoint on the east side of the Arghandab River.

“Small bridges inside the villages have been destroyed.”

Contrary to what NATO and Canadian officials were saying, Mohammad told AP that hundreds of Taliban insurgents controlled nine or 10 villages on the west side of the river.

Gen. Rick Hillier, the outgoing chief of defence staff, said in Ottawa the Kandahar prison break would not change Canadian military operations in Afghanistan.

“The Taliban have obviously demonstrated numerous times that they can organize things in Kandahar province. This one was obviously a bigger event than some of the other ones that we’ve seen,” Hillier said.

“We’ll learn some lessons from this also. We’ll help the Afghans learn some lessons … but it will take a while to pick through that.”

Last October, the Taliban amassed some 300 fighters to try to seize the Arghandab district, hoping to take advantage of a power vacuum left after a pro-government strongman had died. Coalition forces fought the Taliban in Arghandab and reported killing some 50 insurgents before Afghan government forces re-established control.

Then as now, local villagers fled and rumours about an imminent attack swept through Kandahar city.

One of the Afghans fleeing Arghandab this time, Haji Ibrahim Khan, said Taliban fighters were moving through several Arghandab villages with weapons on their shoulders, planting mines and destroying small bridges.

“They told us to leave the area within 24 hours because they want to fight foreign and Afghan troops,” Khan said.

The Taliban have long sought to control Arghandab and the good fighting positions its pomegranate and grape groves offer. From there, militants can cross the countryside’s flat plains on a decent road network for probing attacks into Kandahar itself, the former spiritual home of the Taliban movement.

Canada has 2,500 troops on the Afghan mission, most of them in Kandahar province as part of ISAF.

The Taliban, a fundamentalist movement, swept to power in the 1990s and ran the country as a ruthless, hardline regime. They were ousted in a U.S.-led invasion in 2001 following the Sept. 11 attacks by the al-Qaida network. The Taliban regime had allowed al-Qaida to operate terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.

– With files from The Associated Press.