A Taliban attack that killed three Canadian soldiers shows the price of not having enough troops to hold and secure hard-won ground in Afghanistan, says a prominent retired general.
"What's worrisome is it happened in Zhari district," Maj.-Gen. Lewis Mackenzie told Canada AM of Wednesday's attack on an armoured personnel carrier that wounded another five soldiers.
Canada started its mission in Kandahar province in February 2006. One of the soldiers killed -- Cpl. Andrew Grenon, 23, of 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry -- was in the first rotation, Mackenzie said.
"And they cleaned out Zhari district, which is where this attack happened yesterday. And now, two years later, Canadians only control approximately one-third of Zhari district. The Taliban control (the remainder)," he said Thursday.
"Once you win a battle, you can't just abandon the area. You have to secure it. And there are nowhere near enough troops in southern Afghanistan to secure the ground that's won."
NATO is failing at the political level to generate enough troops, Mackenzie said.
Canada has 2,500 troops in Kandahar. NATO agreed last spring to add 1,000 more.
The U.S. has recently dispatched 800 combat troops to Maywand district, which is just north of Zhari and Panjwaii, another district where Canadian soldiers have been involved in constant skirmishes with the Taliban.
But Mackenzie said 800 here or there won't make that much of a difference. "I'm talking somewhere about 10,000 required to secure the territory," he said.
'Worrisome'
In the spring of 2007, the Taliban had success in causing multiple casualties by attacking Canadian armoured personnel carriers with large improvised explosive devices planted in the roadside.
However, insurgents attacked this LAV III carrier out on a security patrol Wednesday without using a roadside bomb. Smith said it's been two years since the Taliban killed so many Canadian soldiers in a direct attack.
"This is attack is worrisome in the kind of sophistication of the attack. At the same time we have not done the complete investigation on it," Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Walter Natynczyk said Wednesday at a defence conference in Banff.
"We've got great soldiers out there who again will react to this, have a look at it, learn from this and apply those lessons."
Natynczyk said there has been an increase in Taliban activity in the past few months, but he couldn't say what is behind the group's more aggressive tactics.
"The security situation during this campaign season and the fighting season is tough and we are seeing sophisticated capabilities in terms of training proficiency of the Taliban, not only in our own region but also in the Regional Command East and in Helmand province as well," he said.
"But at the same time we're learning, we're adapting and trying to get ahead of the Taliban."
Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday that the Taliban's fighting season might be set for a seasonal slowdown.
"We know there have been times that the tempo has increased when the kinetic activity has gone down. Traditionally we have seen now as we enter Ramadan a slowing down of some of the violence which we hope and expect," he said.
Mackenzie said Thursday that he doubted there would be any "holiday" from the fighting due to Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.
Globe and Mail reporter Graeme Smith told Canada AM from Afghanistan that Ramadan has historically been a quieter period -- except in the last two years. Some Taliban look on this as a good time to commit suicide attacks "because the gates of Heaven are open," he said.
The latest casualties push Canada's military death toll to 96 since 2002. Of the five injured soldiers, one remains in critical condition. Another is in serious condition, two others are in good condition and the last has been treated and returned to duty.
One of the three fallen soldiers would have been returning to Canada in a matter of weeks.
Ramp ceremony
Thousands of coalition troops gathered at dusk on Thursday at Kandahar Air Field to see off the bodies of their fallen comrades.
Twenty-four teary-eyed pallbearers carried the caskets of Grenon, Cpl. Mike Seggie and Pte. Chad Horn into the aircraft.
Pte. Glen Kirkland, one of the five wounded in the attack, also attended the ceremony. He got out of a wheelchair after the ceremony and eased his way up the aircraft's ramp to say goodbye.
With files from The Canadian Press
