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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The Taliban's propaganda machine claimed Friday that Canada had been forced to withdraw its combat troops from Kandahar this week because it had "sustained heavy casualties . . . at the hands of Mujahideen."
The terrorist organization predicted that a new training mission involving 950 troops that has already begun in Kabul would end in more "losses," a "bitter outcome," and the "self-same consequences," its spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousaf Ahmadi, said in a news release circulated on the Internet.
Why, the spokesman questioned, was Canada continuing what he called its "illegitimate intervention in Afghanistan under another title in the name of military training?"
While congratulating the people of Canada for "its responsible step" in ending its combat mission, "the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan calls on the people of other invading countries to realize the ground realities of the illegitimate and worthless war of Afghanistan and oblige their governments to put and end to this aimless war," said the spokesman. (It is not known whether Ahmadi is his real name or a nom de guerre.)
During Canada's nine years in Afghanistan on a UN-sanctioned mission, 157 Canadian soldiers died. Of those deaths, 137 were as the result of Taliban attacks.
"In addition to the life loss, the heavy economic burden of the war dawned on the people and members of the Parliament of Canada to press the ruling regime to withdraw their forces," Ahamdi's statement said.
The Canadian death toll in Afghanistan since 2006 averaged slightly more than 30 deaths a year until last year, when it plummeted more than 80 per cent. The drop in Canadian casualties — only four soldiers died in combat during the last year of the mission — has been attributed to a surge in U.S. and Afghan forces into the South. This allowed Canada's battle group to focus its attention on Panjwaii District, where all the evidence is that the Taliban has now been mostly eliminated.
The Taliban has been routed in many other places across its former heartland in the South over the past year. Since these serious reverses the insurgency has increasingly switched its attention to the east of Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border. It has also used a series of spectacular attacks on stores, hotels and government offices, which have killed many civilians, to garner publicity and impress upon Afghans that it remains a potent force.
The House of Commons voted three years ago to end the combat mission in Kandahar by this month. Only a handful of combat troops remain in the field attached temporarily to U.S. army units. They are all expected to return to Canada within days.
The terrorist organization predicted that a new training mission involving 950 troops that has already begun in Kabul would end in more "losses," a "bitter outcome," and the "self-same consequences," its spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousaf Ahmadi, said in a news release circulated on the Internet.
Why, the spokesman questioned, was Canada continuing what he called its "illegitimate intervention in Afghanistan under another title in the name of military training?"
While congratulating the people of Canada for "its responsible step" in ending its combat mission, "the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan calls on the people of other invading countries to realize the ground realities of the illegitimate and worthless war of Afghanistan and oblige their governments to put and end to this aimless war," said the spokesman. (It is not known whether Ahmadi is his real name or a nom de guerre.)
During Canada's nine years in Afghanistan on a UN-sanctioned mission, 157 Canadian soldiers died. Of those deaths, 137 were as the result of Taliban attacks.
"In addition to the life loss, the heavy economic burden of the war dawned on the people and members of the Parliament of Canada to press the ruling regime to withdraw their forces," Ahamdi's statement said.
The Canadian death toll in Afghanistan since 2006 averaged slightly more than 30 deaths a year until last year, when it plummeted more than 80 per cent. The drop in Canadian casualties — only four soldiers died in combat during the last year of the mission — has been attributed to a surge in U.S. and Afghan forces into the South. This allowed Canada's battle group to focus its attention on Panjwaii District, where all the evidence is that the Taliban has now been mostly eliminated.
The Taliban has been routed in many other places across its former heartland in the South over the past year. Since these serious reverses the insurgency has increasingly switched its attention to the east of Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border. It has also used a series of spectacular attacks on stores, hotels and government offices, which have killed many civilians, to garner publicity and impress upon Afghans that it remains a potent force.
The House of Commons voted three years ago to end the combat mission in Kandahar by this month. Only a handful of combat troops remain in the field attached temporarily to U.S. army units. They are all expected to return to Canada within days.
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