Canadian and Afghan forces have completed a four-day assault on insurgent networks building and deploying improvised explosive devices in the Pashmul area west of Kandahar City. Roadside IEDs or suicide bombings have been behind more than half of the 83 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. The operation to disrupt the work of the roadside bombers - Operation Rawa Tunder (Pashto for Rolling Thunder) - saw the heaviest fighting so far this year by the Canadian battle group and Afghan security forces. The fighting was so intense at times that artillery and U.S. aerial bombing missions were called in."It was aimed at disrupting some of the cells that have been affecting some of the routes (used by Canadian convoys). It was a successful operation," said Lt.-Col. Shawn Lockhurst, chief of operations with Canada's Joint Task Force Afghanistan headquarters. "It keeps them off balance ... it keeps them guessing," he said. "They will remain off balance for the foreseeable future and have less co-ordination to conduct attacks."
Dozens of insurgents were killed in the fighting, but Lockhurst wouldn't say exactly how many nor would he comment on Afghan media that a local Taliban commander was killed in the fighting. "We don't measure successes by body counts, but should we happen to eliminate commanders ... that is a success," he said. No Canadians were injured and the only Afghan National Army casualty was a soldier who shot himself in the foot.