Bodies returned after 72 Taliban killed in battle
Canadian and Afghan soldiers are returning some of the bodies of dozens of Taliban fighters killed during a major air and ground battle near Kandahar this weekend, according to a report published Monday.
Afghan government officials calculated that 72 Taliban fighters were killed — a number that NATO officials say could make up as much as 10 per cent of the hardline organization's estimated numbers in southern Afghanistan.
As a gesture of goodwill, Canadian troops under NATOand Afghan forces have returned at least 18 of the bodies, the Canadian Press said Monday.
"It was an extremely big blow [to the Taliban's] combat effectiveness," said Lt.-Col. Omer Lavoie, who took over as Canada's battle group commander in Kandahar just three hours before the fighting began.
1st major battle for recently deployed Canadians
The battle began late Saturday and continued into early Sunday in the Panjwaii district, a Taliban stronghold about 30 kilometres west of the city of Kandahar.
It was the first major assault for most of the Canadian soldiers, who arrived in the country a few weeks earlier,mainly from CFB Petawawa in Eastern Ontario.
They're amongmore than 2,200 Canadians in NATO's 19,000-member force, which recently assumed responsibility for security in Afghanistan from the United States.
The NATO force, which in southern Afghanistan is primarily Canadian, British and Dutch, said in a statement Sunday that it had launched the offensive "to extend security along southern Afghanistan's Highway 1 corridor."
Canadian Forces Maj. Scott Lundy said Sunday there were no casualties among NATO troops, who took over security responsibilities in Afghanistan earlier this summer from the U.S.-led coalition.
However, seven Afghan policemen were reported killed in the clashes.
Bodies, weapons found in orchards
Many of the militants who were killed were found in orchards alongside their weapons, a local official said.
By all witness reports, it was the Taliban that sparked the fighting, striking a bazaar in Panjwaii and prompting Afghan and NATO soldiers to respond.
Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi, the district chief, said the insurgents were killed when they launched an attack.
6 soldiers killed elsewhere
In incidents elsewhere in the country on the weekend, four U.S. soldiers, a British soldier and an Afghan soldier were killedand three British soldiers were wounded.
NATO leads a force of about 19,000 troops from 37 countries in Afghanistan, while the United States has about 22,000 soldiers there.
However, five years after U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban government on accusations that it was harbouring al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Taliban power seems to have resurged amid some of the bloodiest months yet seen.
The Panjwaii district where the weekend's major battle took place has been the site of many battles with the Taliban, including three attacks earlier in August that killed four Canadian soldiers and wounded 10 others.