Troops (Canadian) Hunting Taliban

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Canadian troops have launched a major operation deep into insurgent country in southern Afghanistan, where local authorities fear to tread and Canadians have already come under attack.

Hundreds of troops from two companies of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry moved out this week by air and road, supported by armoured vehicles, helicopter gunships and artillery.

The aim of the mission, which will last for much of the rest of March, is to show local residents and insurgents that Afghan authorities and Canadian troop can control the rural, isolated area despite the presence of Taliban insurgents.

Over the last month, Canadian troops have encountered ambushes - including rockets, roadside bombs and an axe attack that left a Canadian in critical condition - in the mountainous region north of Kandahar city.

Several small pockets of insurgents, numbering in the dozens according to departing U.S. commanders, still operate in the area. In the spring, they often gather and organize larger offensives.

Six U.S. soldiers and 18 Afghans - including police, soldiers and civilian leaders - died in operations in the area last year.

"If we meet these bad guys, we destroy them. Simple as that," said Capt. Martin Larose, the acting commander of Company A, during a briefing for platoon commanders.

Larose warned his troops to watch out for the commonly known arsenal used by insurgents: roadside bombs, AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

It's the biggest mission so far for the Canadian contingent of 2,200 troops based in Kandahar who have arrived in the region over the past month. Smaller units have patrolled in the northern part of the province since they started arriving in early February.

The mission coincided with a big anti-narcotics operation in neighbouring Helmond province, where hundreds of Afghan police and soldiers backed up by coalition troops have been plowing under illicit poppy fields.

Canadians moved into a forward operating base near Gumbad, 60 kilometres north of Kandahar, several weeks ago. They almost immediately came under rocket-propelled grenade attack, which was answered by a barrage of Canadian howitzers.

Most recently, Capt. Trevor Greene, a civil-military co-operation officer, was attacked by an axe-wielding youth while on a visit with local elders in Shingai village.

Capt. Kevin Schamuhn, Greene's platoon commander who was among three soldiers who killed the attacker and repelled a subsequent ambush, briefed his troops for their return to the region to again meet elders and collect intelligence.

"The locals might feed you a bunch of bullshit," Schamuhn told soldiers in a briefing. "We're spending a lot of time trying to sort out the truth. Call them on it directly, it seems to get much better information."

The push into rural areas comes one week after a spate of suicide bombings and ambushes in Kandahar that injured eight Canadian soldiers.

Two others were killed and six injured in vehicle accidents around the same time.

I sure as hell hope so!

I understand the need for OPSEC. On the other hand, the Special Forces guys I've met could be our very best weapon in the information war, if the public knew more about them and their work.

Right now, the information war is more difficult than the "kinetic" war where we try to kill our enemies -- we dominate one, while we're getting our backsides kicked in the other. I'd like to see a little more openness about SF people and SF operations -- I think it would be a good thing.

That's just my opinion, and I hope the people who really have their lives on the line will make the final decisions.

During the next four days of fighting, the Newfoundland corporal set what is believed to be a record for a long-distance shot under combat conditions, hitting an enemy gunman at a distance of 2,430 metres.>>>>>>>>>>

Who says Canadians can't fight?>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Right on bro.

I have seen shots made by Newfoundlanders just like that on Moose

You see, Canada still has desolate wilderness frontiers, and the old shooting skills are passed down from father to son.

I once had the privilege of witnessing a WW I Newfoundlander in his 80's win a long range shootin contest over scoped rifles, with a Lee Enfield Mark I Rifle in .303 caliber , on a 1000 yard range in Norris Arm, Newfoundland. The wind was blowing and bucking like hell. This old timer was deadly. No one else could shoot acurately in that wind, even with scopes.

I have seen Newfoundlanders hunt adult seals from a rolling boat in a long swell. They would shoot the seal through the eye at 200 to 300 yards , so as not to ruin the value of the pelt. And the guns were rested on the gunwale. Newfoundlanders are excellent riflemen, especially the seal on Moose hunters. I have seen them target practise on Loons on a lake at 1000 yards, just for the hell of it. They would try to just come close, and of course the splash of the bullet was immediate feedback on the placement of the round. (Its so uninhabited in most places that any bouncing water shots were no danger.) After seeing this and doing it myself, I know that shooting long range at water targets is the fastest way of learning sniper shooting skills.

The other thing you should know is that the Canadian Government would not allow Newfoundlanders to serve with the infantry combat soldiers in WW II because so many died in WW I , they were TOO fearless. A Newfoundlander who wanted combat infantry in WW II had to change his residence to another province, and them volunteer there.

It is from these taditions that Brigadeer General Hillier comes, the Commanding Officer of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Many Canadian soldiers have the necessary basic shooting skills even before the go into the military. I expect the Taliban will feel the Canadian sting very badly, and after what was done to Trevor Greene, the Princess Patricia Rifles will go out into the barrens after them. The Canadians will be right at home in those isolated mountains.

Any sizeable Taliban group will be denied the former safe harbor those Mountains had come to represent.

I'd say that Harper made his feelings known to the MoD. Whether we who Freeped Harper had any efect in this policy , to turn the Patricia Pats loose on the Taliban, is now a moot point.

General Fraser has taken the bull by the horns, and our Scottish Canadian Regiment will run the Taliban to ground and death, or make them scoot right on back to Quetta , Pakistan, with their farting, sodomic asses on fire.

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