OPERATION MEDUSA A 'SIGNIFICANT' SUCCESS: NATO

A top NATO general says the alliance's massive, two-week-long anti-Taliban offensive in southern Afghanistan has been "successfully completed."

Lieut.-Gen. David Richards, head of the 20,000 NATO-led force, hailed Operation Medusa in the insurgent stronghold of southern Afghanistan as a "significant success.''

Reconstruction and development efforts will soon begin in three southern areas, said Richards, after insurgents were forced to abandon their positions.

Operation Medusa was launched on Sept. 2 with the aim of clearing out Taliban fighters from a farming district near Kandahar.

NATO said hundreds of militants were killed and many were forced out of the district as a result of that operation.

"This has been a significant success and clearly shows the capability that Afghan, NATO and coalition forces have when they operate together," Richards told a news conference in London.

Convoy attacked

NATO's announcement comes on the same day three Canadian soldiers were slightly wounded and an Afghan civilian was killed when a suicide bomber attacked a military convoy in southern Afghanistan.

The bomber, who also died in the blast, plowed his vehicle packed with explosives into the Canadian convoy west of Kandahar city.

At least eight other civilians were also wounded in the attack. NATO is not releasing the identities of the injured soldiers.

A Canadian military vehicle was slightly damaged in the attack and the bomber's vehicle was destroyed, a reporter with the Associated Press said.

Canada has about 2,200 troops in southern Afghanistan. But that number is about to get higher as Canada prepares to send an additional 450 soldiers and up to 15 tanks to assist in the mission.

"First of all, we want to make sure they're well prepared, well trained and ready to go off to Afghanistan before we send them. So many of the soldiers won't go until later on this fall," Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of defence staff, said Sunday on CTV's Question Period.

"While we're sending those soldiers in, we're reducing the force in place now because we're handing over command of region south, on or about (the first of )November. . . . That means we'll top out at about 2,500 soldiers all together."

Canadians are 'stretched'

With the infusion of troops, Canadians will make up well over 10 per cent of the NATO contingent in Afghanistan.

NATO's top commander last week renewed an appeal for allies to urgently provide up to 2,500 troops for the battle with the relentless insurgents in southern Afghanistan.
Hillier said today that Canadians serving in the region are "stretched" in their resources, yet maintained that the military can "sustain this mission."

He conceded, however, that "one of the things we have to do is use our people -- all the men and women in uniform, air land and sea -- much better."

"In the past decade, I believe that we've done 100 percent of our deployed operations probably using not more than 45 to 50 per cent of the people in uniform. Now what we're going to do is use them all.

"There are many jobs, many tasks and many parts of the mission that don't have to be done by soldiers trained in combat operations."

One way Hillier said this would be accomplished is to address the often-heard complaint that there are too many people fighting the war from behind "desks."

"We're taking people from all those desks right across Canadian forces, out of every headquarters, out of every structured organization, and we're going to use them to sustain the operation," said Hillier, adding that troops will be rotated more efficiently.

"We'll use every single man and woman across the Canadian forces to the extent that we possibly can, better than we've done before, to sustain that mission and still keep the men and women in the forces healthy."

17/09/2006 1:44:57 PM