Monday, March 23, 2009

Massive military operation disrupts Taliban staging ground

The taliban sure have been having a bad week. Globe & Mail

Canadians fighters teamed with members of the American battalion under their command and well as Afghan troops and U.S. special forces to disrupt the ability of the Taliban to mount attacks from the area that is no longer under the control of the pro-government military coalition.

The planning for the mission, the size of which one high-ranking officer said had not been mounted by Canadian troops since the Korean War, began three weeks ago with the agreement on the head of the Afghan forces, said Brig.-Gen Vance.

It stretched across a wide swath of the province where the military determined that a “disruptive effect” was needed in advance of what is shaping up to be a fighting season that could see many lives lost.

Disruptive operations have a short life-span, cautioned the general. More disruptions will be needed, he said.

But, throughout the four days that the coalition forces were on the ground, the material to make between 30 and 50 improvised bombs was discovered, three Taliban medical aid posts were overrun, and five insurgents were captured. They remain in Canadian custody until their status, and the threat they pose, can be fully assessed.

The U.S. battalion took its own prisoners who will be handled by the “American national net, said the general. Ten other people had been detained during a special forces operation in the same region few days earlier, some of who were subsequently released In the Arghandab, a district that has been less vulnerable to the Taliban influx, soldiers participating in Operation Jaley were joined by local police and Canadian police mentors to find the “very IED makers and those insurgents who may have been involved in the IED strike on the 3rd of March,” said Brig.-Gen. Vance. That blast killed three Canadian troops.

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