KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A Canadian military official says an unspecified number of Taliban insurgents were killed but no Canadians were injured Monday, the third day of Operation Keeping Goodwill.
The mission is to increase the international presence in the heart of Taliban country, in the Zhari district of southern Afghanistan, driving insurgents out of what has been a stronghold.
"The operation that we've been conducting in the past 72 hours has inflicted heavy losses, both in terms of command and control and equipment, to the insurgents,'' Maj. Eric Laforest told reporters at the International Security Assistance Force base at Kandahar airfield.
Canadian soldiers, working alongside the Afghan national security forces, also seized arms and explosives as they pushed across a 20-square-kilometre stretch of the district west of Kandahar City.
"We found some equipment that could have been used against us in the future, rockets and some explosives which, of course, we got rid off,'' Laforest said.
Insurgents fired back on Canadian troops with mortars and rockets.
"As expected, insurgents tried to come back on us and with the combined effects of indirect fire and direct fire, we were able to inflict some damage and push them back,'' he said.
A total of about 700 Canadian soldiers and Afghan security forces were involved in the operation.
Laforest emphasized that the operation was very precise. International forces have come under heavy criticism for the numbers of civilian deaths in the Afghan conflict.
"We're confident there were no civilian deaths and no damage to civilian (infrastructure) in the region,'' he said.
Ultimately, responsibility for securing the area will be turned over to Afghan national forces, first under Canadian guidance and later, on their own. That has been a problem in the past, when under-paid, poorly trained and ill-equipped Afghan army officers or police have quickly ceded areas won by Canadian troops.
This time last year, Canadians took the lead in the largest NATO offensive in Afghanistan to date, Operation Medusa, which had largely the same goal in the same region.
The Canadian Forces and the RCMP, along with the German and U.S. armies, have undertaken training of Afghan national forces.
A new mentorship program is just getting underway between Canadian Forces and Afghan police.
"Our soldiers are professional soldiers. The biggest thing will be to lead by example,'' said Maj. Louis Lapointe, commander of the Police Operational Mentor Liaison Team.
Lapointe admits there are many challenges ahead. Afghan police, in particular, are paid little, and not regularly. And it is not unusual to see teenagers who wouldn't be able to drive in Canada wearing the dark blue national police uniform.
"There is corruption,'' Lapointe said. "But we want to bring them away from that. It's a long process.''
For his part, Laforest said indeed, Canadians had established security in the area in the past. And the will do so again.
"Due to some reasons, we had to go back. And we'll always go back,'' he said. "We're here to help the Afghan people and as long as they want us, as long as the government of Afghanistan wants us here, we'll go back.''
