Boost for our Troops -Canucks other NATO Soldiers ready to take over fight in Afghanistan

http://ottsun.canoe.ca/News/National/2005/12/31/pf-1374088.html
Boost for our troops
Canucks other NATO Soldiers ready to take over fight in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A U.S. commander is "very confident" Canadian and other NATO-led troops will aggressively keep up the fight against insurgents when they take over control of southern Afghanistan from his troops in the spring.
NATO foreign ministers approved plans earlier this month to send up to 6,000 mostly European and Canadian soldiers into volatile southern Afghanistan, while about 10,000 NATO troops continue to watch over the north and west.
The plans give the NATO troops a stronger self-defence mandate, guarantee support from U.S. troops if they face a serious attack and set rules for handling detainees.
Canadian Col. S.J. Bowes said his force, which will assume responsibility for Kandahar, is prepared to extend the offensive nature of the operation.
"It's clear that this is not a peacekeeping mission," he said.
DEADLIEST YEAR
Maj.-Gen. Jason Kamiya and Bowes, the U.S.-led coalition's operational commander, says NATO troops will be aggressive in the fight against insurgents.
"I feel very, very confident ... that each nation understands what the conditions are here," Kamiya said yesterday during a visit by Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, who is making a six-country tour to rally his troops during the holidays.
This year has been the deadliest in Afghanistan since a U.S.-led offensive ousted the Taliban regime in late 2001 for harbouring Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida training camps. More than 1,500 people have been killed as militants loyal to the Taliban, al-Qaida and other groups have stepped up attacks.
Two suspected Taliban suicide bombers died Thursday when explosives they were strapping to their bodies exploded prematurely.
The blast followed a string of suicide attacks and came days after a top rebel commander said more than 200 insurgents are willing to kill themselves in assaults on U.S. troops and their allies.
Kamiya dismissed the claim by Mullah Dadullah as propaganda but acknowledged such attacks are on the rise.
"Suicide bombers were almost non-existent when we came here in March. What we did notice though is that the rise in suicide bombings began in June," he said.
CANADIAN INJURED
"The enemy began to realize that every time he came at us directly he would always lose great numbers of fighters and insurgents. So, this caused him to adapt his tactics."
There have been about a dozen such attacks the last few months.
A suicide bomber also set off explosives near a U.S. and Afghan military convoy in Kandahar Dec. 11, killing himself and wounding three civilians. A week earlier, a suicide bomber killed a civilian and wounded a Canadian soldier.