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Dawn raid kills 41 Taliban
The dawn raid of a Taliban compound southwest of Kandahar City was heralded as a major success for the Canadian Forces after 41 Taliban fighters were killed and four others captured.The NATO coalition of Canadian soldiers, Afghan National Army troops and soldiers with the British army's Royal Gurkha Regiment surprised sleeping insurgents as the early-morning call to prayer from the mosque at Siah Choy rang out over the cluster of farming villages with mud-walled compounds. The Taliban fled into an open space where they were bombed by NATO aircraft. "All the strikes that happened were in open terrain," Major Richard Moffet, deputy commanding officer of the Canadian battle group, told reporters yesterday. "We kick them out, we follow them and we strike them." The Sunday battle, dubbed Operation Sharp Sword, was designed to disrupt insurgent activities, such as planting improvised explosive devices -- or roadside bombs -- and ambushes on key roads travelled by military convoys in the volatile Zhari and Panjwaii districts of Kandahar province. When the fighting was over, coalition forces walked away without a single casualty, Maj. Moffet said. A large Taliban weapons cache, including small arms, was also uncovered. NATO has been fighting for control of the densely populated region, favoured by the Taliban because of their ability to blend into the background, since the summer of 2006. Canadian soldiers claimed victory about a year ago in another military offensive that hemmed insurgents into a nearby area, about 40 kilo-metres southwest of Kandahar City. This time around, Maj. Moffet praised the Gurkhas, a decorated regiment of Nepalese soldiers that worked closely with Afghan soldiers, for bearing the "brunt of the battle." Three Gurkha soldiers described the insurgents' initial surprise at seeing them on Sunday. "They knew we weren't Afghan soldiers, or Canadian soldiers; they couldn't figure out who we were," one said. ... Posted by: ed 2007-12-18 |
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