Taliban supplies uncovered during three-day patrol

D4

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

NAKONEY, Afghanistan - Canadian soldiers breathed a sigh of relief and their Afghan colleagues praised God this week after a three-day patrol in this remote village southwest of Kandahar City yielded large caches of Taliban supplies of everything from medical supplies to homemade bombs to weapons powerful enough to take out armoured vehicles.

"Allah akbar! (God is great)" shouted the Afghans after recovering an 82-millimetre recoilless rifle complete with ammunition on Wednesday from underneath a tangle of grape vines adjacent to a mud-walled compound.

It was the prize find of the operation, but by no means the only one in this village long suspected of being a major Taliban staging area. The operation was conducted to disrupt Taliban operations in the area and improve security in Kandahar City by interrupting the flow of insurgents through the area.

The provincial capital has been the scene of major Taliban actions in recent months, including a massive jailbreak and the bombing of the city's police headquarters.

In response, a sizeable and heavily armed group of soldiers, mostly composed of the Royal Canadian Regiment and the Afghan National Army, set out for the area on Monday. The convoy, more than 1.5 kilometres long, included a large number of light armoured vehicles and Leopard tanks.

Patrols began Tuesday, with the Afghans conducting searches of compounds suspected of harbouring insurgents while the Canadians monitored the narrow, mud-walled streets. Results came quickly.

Inside one of the compounds, in a room about 10 metres square, was what appeared to be a Taliban infirmary.

Soldiers carted out boxes of high-quality medical gear, including IVs, sterile fluids, syringes, dressings and painkillers. Bloodstained clothing was found.

On one side of the room were two 50-kilogram bags of dried peas, distributed by the United Nations' World Food Program and clearly marked "Gift of Canada."

But the major discovery came the following day.

The search of a compound near the infirmary turned up a bomb-making factory, with jugs of homemade explosive, anti-personnel mines and detonation devices. When explosive-sniffing dogs turned up dozens more mines tucked under brushpiles in the adjacent yard, the Afghans conducted a thorough search of its grape field.

One officer likened it to "an Easter egg hunt."

Mortar bombs, plastic explosives, ready-to-use IEDs, hundreds of feet of detonation cord, radios, a heavy-machine gun and belts of ammunition all emerged from under the grape vines.

"This gets bigger and bigger," said Maj. Steve Nolan, watching the pile of ordnance grow.

And then the "82" turned up, taking out of circulation a weapon deadly to the vehicles that transport Canadian soldiers.

"That makes me real, real happy," said one soldier. "That's a real morale booster."