ShareThisKANDAHAR, Afghanistan - In a marked shift in ground strategy, Canadian and American troops will form a "ring of stability" around Kandahar City to stem the flow of insurgent raids on the city, according to the commander of Canadian troops here.
Canada has held NATO authority over the city for three years, along with the outlying districts.
Now, that responsibility shrinks, constricting to form a security perimeter around Kandahar City, according to Brig. Gen. Daniel Menard.
That contracting battle-space means Canada will give up sparsely populated regions of western Zari, western Panjwai and southern Daman, focusing instead on the home of between 800,000 and 1.3 million people.
"Kandahar City, being the center mass of the population, is by far my priority No. 1," said Menard. "But it is also a centerpiece right now of (U.S.) General (Stanley) McChrystal's plan. We are in the middle of all of this, at the forefront of all those activities."
At the same time, Canada's Task Force Kandahar will take on the southern tip of Arghandab district, a lush agricultural region fed by the Arghandab River and currently swamped with insurgents. Canada held the area until July before handing it over to U.S. command. Though it now comes under Canadian control, the U.S. will supply the troops with its 2-508 battalion.
"I feel extremely privileged that the Americans actually offered those troops to Canadians in order to be able to command this area," Menard said. "Arghandab is a very, very difficult piece of ground."
The U.S. 508th will start battling in Arghandab before Christmas, boosting the number of troops under Canadian command to around 5,000, a roughly 50-50 split between Canadian and American contingents. It's not yet clear how many of the 30,000 troops President Barack Obama announced Tuesday will end up under Canadian command.
The idea behind the "ring of stability" -- or "doughnut of stability," one soldier suggested as a more distinctly Canadian brand -- is to barricade the increasingly violent city against insurgent activity. Menard expects the ring to be in place by May, the annual start of fighting season in the country and roughly 14 months before Canada is slated to end all combat operations in Afghanistan.
Under the revised strategy, Kandahar's core will be left up to Afghanistan army and police forces, with considerable backup from U.S. military police mentors.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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