NEW ROAD IN AFGHANISTAN
Andrew Barr, National Post
Posted on 2/6/2008, 12:06:27 PM by Clive
PANJWAII DISTRICT, Afghanistan -- Canadian and Afghan National Army soldiers are kicking down doors and bursting into residential compounds in this Taliban fiefdom, looking for insurgents responsible for a wave of deadly attacks.
The sustained "clearing operation" takes place as Canadian combat engineers and Afghan contractors prepare to pave a 16.5-kilometre roadway that runs straight through this volatile district, 40 kilometres west of Kandahar City.
Scheduled to begin this week, the roadwork will take eight months to complete and will involve more than 400 local workers. District elders were provided details of the project at a recent shura, or council meeting.
It is expected to be a difficult, dangerous task. Panjwaii is seeded with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and the existing roadway, presently a bucking, potholed track, is the most popular target for insurgents.
"The area is still [Code] Red, very dangerous" says Major Patrick Robichaud, commanding officer for Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, Royal 22nd Canadian Regiment, which is responsible for the area's safety.
"There's a lot of Taliban movement and they have put IEDs all over the place."
Paving the existing route -- from the village of Bazar-e-Panjwaii, west along the Arghandab River to the village of Mushan -- is considered vital if Canadian and coalition troops and local citizens are to move about the district safely.
A string of ANA positions and police substations has just been established but any form of travel here remains perilous.
On Jan. 23, Corporal Etienne Gonthier of the 5e Regiment du Genie de Combat was killed while clearing the route. Cpl. Gonthier's light armoured vehicle hit an IED.
The incident followed an IED strike a week earlier. There were no Canadian casualties but a number of damaged armoured vehicles remain beside the road. The army wants to reclaim them, but the task will be dangerous.
The Taliban consider Panjwaii their birthplace, their spiritual homeland. It provides them a corridor into Afghanistan from Pakistan, where they regroup annually, refilling their supplies and recruiting new fighters. They are not giving it up easily.
It 's where Canadians launched Operation Medusa, a bloody battle waged against the Taliban in September, 2006. Scores of insurgents were killed here but replacements soon arrived.
Canadian troops soon switched their focus north, across the Arghandab, to Zhari district. The Taliban then ran south, back into Panjwaii.
Seven weeks ago, a company of Afghan soldiers with Canadian members of an Operational Mentor and Liaison Team discovered a Taliban compound near the Panjwaii trail. A firefight ensued and air cover was requested. A U.S. warplane dropped a 500-pound bomb on the compound, killing an estimated 47 insurgents.
The National Post has also learned that two ANA soldiers in the area were injured in a friendly fire incident; it involved soldiers from a Lord Strathcona's Horse Royal Canadians tank squadron.
"One of our men lost an eye. The other was not hurt so badly," says Turyali, an ANA lieutenant. He and his men hold no grudge against the Canadians, he adds. "It is a war and sometimes these things happen. But it was bad for everyone."
A Canadian officer confirmed that an investigation into the friendly fire incident is under way but would offer no details.
The route through Panjwaii is so dangerous that supply convoys and some combat troops now avoid it; instead, they plow through fields and across irrigation ditches in an effort to avoid hidden bombs.
Patrolling on foot, Afghan soldiers and their OMLT leaders are trying to help secure the area ahead of the incoming construction crew. They also want to "soften" the Panjwaii district for a new rotation of Canadian soldiers, due to start arriving this month.
Acting on information from an informant last week, the group surrounded a residential compound, where, it was alleged, 15 AK-47 rifles and other weapons were hidden.
Two ANA soldiers booted open a door to the compound and the rest poured inside. An hour-long search turned up nothing, much to the disappointment of the OMLT leader, a veteran soldier who insisted his name not be used in this article. "I've had two dozen contacts with the Taliban since the summer and I don't want them to go looking for me once I'm back in Canada," he said.
The fighting has been so intense and prolonged that one of his men, a valued sergeant, lost his nerve and had to leave Afghanistan early.
His replacement, a rugged master corporal named Francois Flibotte, says he experienced "the best feeling of my life" during his first direct engagement with the Taliban. Now he's counting the days until his tour is over.
But this day was not finished; a known Taliban operative was spotted running through a field and the OMLT leader decided to go after him.
Three more compounds were searched. "We'll find something," said the officer, walking swiftly and scrambling over mud walls. "We always do."
ANA soldiers broke through another doorway, bolted inside, and fired a warning shot. The Canadians followed, their C-7 rifles at the ready.
Poking around, one soldier discovered an AK-47, a bag of loose bullets and an ammunition belt.
But there were no males of fighting age inside, just two boys and three terrified, screaming women. "I don't care if there's women crying," yelled the OMLT leader. "We're going to clear this place."
These types of searches likely won't endear Canadians to residents of Panjwaii. Goodwill gestures, such as the delivery of aid and reconstruction projects, are crucial, notes Maj. Robichaud. He relies on local residents for information about insurgent movements.
"Some are reluctant to interact with us," says Maj. Robichaud, noting there is still a smattering of support for the Taliban here. But locals are also wary of Taliban threats. These include "night letters," threatening notes pinned to homes of anyone whom insurgents suspect of co-operating with the Canadians.
The Taliban will dismember their victim and place the corpse in a conspicuous area, for all to see. There was one reported execution last month in Mushan, but no body was found.
Still, says Maj. Robichaud, "there has been more collaboration lately. Some locals share their information very subtly."
The Canadians, on the other hand, are not so subtle with their messages. Inside Maj. Robichaud's operations room in Panjwaii district is a stack of brightly coloured posters, to be distributed about the area. They depict a person digging into a roadside; a large red X is stamped across the image.
The meaning is clear, says Maj. Robichaud. "If you are caught digging on a road, chances are you will be killed."
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