KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Canada's planned withdrawal of troops from Kandahar next year threatens to undermine progress being made in the volatile Afghan province, a senior NATO officer said Wednesday.
Coalition and Afghan forces in Kandahar have in recent months launched a multi-pronged offensive against Taliban insurgents. Many see the operation, dubbed Hamkari, as the international community's last chance to bring stability to southern Afghanistan.
NATO's chief of operations for southern Afghanistan, Col. Dave Bellon, said the Canadian withdrawal, which will occur during the middle of next year's fighting season, "couldn't be at a more critical time."
Bellon indicated it will be impossible to replace Canada's more than 1,000 combat troops without diminishing forces elsewhere in the country.
"I'll shoot you straight; it's going to hurt us," Bellon said. "There is no other country that is going to come in and backfill Canada in Panjwaii, except the United States, and there are no additional forces (in Afghanistan).
"That means we're going to take an already stretched force and stretch it farther."
The vast majority of Canada's combat troops are currently based in Panjwaii, a largely rural district southwest of Kandahar city known as a Taliban stronghold.
Their presence there is seen as integral to Hamkari. The Canadian battle group is being used to block their access to the city as U.S. forces push the Taliban down from neighbouring Zhari district.
With fewer troops in the province, military planners fear the insurgents will be able return to the areas where they've been chased from.
"When you take out a capable force like TFK, a very capable and willing force, then you have got to spread the rest of the force thin," Bellon said.
"Then you get in the danger of not being able to secure the population."
Bellon made similar comments to another media outlet Tuesday. He later sought to clarify their meaning by comparing himself to the coach of a sports team.
"If you tell me I'm going to lose a star player, I'm going to say 'sure it hurts,' " he said.
Though Bellon stressed he was speaking for himself, and not NATO, it is a poorly kept secret that the organization is actively lobbying Ottawa to rethink its plans to end the combat mission in 2011.
Washington has also pressured Canada to remain in Afghanistan in a training capacity, an idea that has found favour with the opposition Liberals as well as the Senate committee on defence and security.
The Conservative government has thus far been steadfast in its refusal to entertain an extension of the mission, citing a 2008 parliamentary motion that calls for an end to combat operations in Kandahar by July 1.
It also mandates a withdrawal from the province by the end of next year.
But while a military ramp-down appears inevitable, Canada has yet to communicate whether it intends to continue its involvement in civilian development projects beyond the 2011 deadline.
International development officials working with NATO acknowledge they are preparing for the possibility that Canada's development program will end as well.
"There is some uncertainty, in my mind at least, as to whether Canada will decide to maintain any presence in Kandahar," said Richard Berthon, director of stability for NATO's southern command.
"We've tried to understand what Canadians have been doing... and working out what the next steps are."
Berthon insisted that the lack of certainty over Canada's civilian intentions has not hampered the international community's stabilization efforts in Kandahar.
"Basically the story of our year has been taking the baseline of where Canada got to and really trying to now crank the handle to take things onto the next level to make that difference," he said.
Canada handed over responsibility for Camp Nathan Smith -- the provincial reconstruction base in Kandahar -- to the Americans in August.
A small contingent of Canadian civilians and military personnel remains at the base, which once had been the showpiece of Canada's development efforts in the restive province.
Canada currently has 2,800 troops based in Afghanistan.
