# One-two punch! - Taliban positions pounded in followup to Medusa



## schart28 (15 Dec 2006)

Cnews: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/War_Terror/CanadaAtWar/2006/12/15/2806285-sun.html

KANDAHAR -- Several Taliban rebels -- including at least one commander -- are believed killed in a late-night NATO airstrike against a "known Taliban command post" in a mountainous region west of Kandahar City. 

In a short sequel to last fall's Canadian-led Operation Medusa, coalition bombers streaked west to the Pajwayi district Wednesday night and dropped precision-guided explosives on the target, "destroying it completely," according to a statement from the International Security Assistance Force. 

RUMBLING IMPACTS 

Sometime after 7 p.m. local time Wednesday, soldiers and civilians at KAF heard the low, rumbling impacts of guided bombs striking the Taliban command post to the west. 

"We're not going to get into a discussion of numbers, but there were a number of Taliban commandos involved and we are pretty confident the target was completely destroyed," said squadron leader Jason Chalk. 

"We believe it was more than one Taliban commander there, definitely," Chalk said.  
  

The strike was part of a joint operation with Afghan security forces meant to send a message to the Taliban and its supporters, said Chalk. 

"The first one is that wherever they go we will eventually find them and track them down. It's a message to the hardcore Taliban first and foremost that there is nowhere to hide," asserted Chalk. 

"The second message is for what I call the hired guns, people who don't have their specific ideologies that are being paid to fight. And that is that they could be doing much better things with their lives," he added. 

The Pajwayi district, about 30 kilometres west of Kandahar City, has long been a Taliban refuge in Kandahar province. It was the scene of Operation Medusa, an air-ground assault launched by NATO Sept. 2 with the intent of purging the district of Taliban fighters. 

NATO said it killed 512 Taliban and captured another 136 during Medusa. Afghan locals said the assault also destroyed civilian homes and farms. 

At the time, NATO and Afghan officials hailed Medusa as an overwhelming victory, one that destroyed the ability of the Taliban to fight conventional battles. 

PUNISHING ASSAULTS 

Since then, however, the Taliban have been flowing back into Pajwayi and conducting a punishing series of guerrilla-style assaults and suicide attacks on ISAF convoys to and from advance posts. 

ISAF spokesperson Maj. Dominic Whyte said the airstrike did not indicate the failure of Medusa. 

"The Canadians, along with other coalition forces, made it possible to establish a series of patrol bases in the region. 

"But that doesn't mean we can afford to have an ISAF soldier standing on every hilltop, watching. We don't have the manpower to put soldiers on every corner, and I don't think the Canadian public would be very happy if we tried to. 

"We have to put our resources where we think they'll be best used. That's why we end up conducting operations like this (airstrike)."


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