Canadian Forces and local Afghan officials are preparing for a major assault in Kandahar province this spring, following in the footsteps of Afghan and NATO soldiers who are currently flushing out Taliban fighters from neighbouring Helmand province.
In Helmand province, some 15,000 troops are clearing the area around the town of Marjah, a Taliban stronghold the Afghan government intends to reclaim. Only two weeks into Operation Moshtarak -- the name for the NATO offensive launched earlier this month -- an Afghan flag has been raised in Marjah and a town administrator appointed.
But more than 2,800 families have been displaced by the offensive according to the independent Afghan Organization of Human Rights and Environmental Protection.
In Kandahar province, local officials have begun stockpiling the supplies needed to take care of their own residents, who are sure to face similar stresses once the local offensive begins in the spring.
Tooryalai Wesa, the Afghan-Canadian governor of Kandahar province, believes that once the fighting gets underway as many as 10,000 people may have to leave their homes.
Wesa said local authorities must be ready to help the people who will be displaced by the fighting.
"People will be moving from those districts toward the city in the first place, then maybe some other districts. So we have to be prepared," Wesa said.
On the military side, Canadian officials are eyeing the battle in Marjah as they work through the early stages of planning the coming offensive.
Canadian Brig.-Gen. Craig King, the coalition's director of future plans in southern Afghanistan, compared the planning process to sculpting.
"I take the block of marble and hew out the thing and get it to a point, and then there's some fine chiselling and then the polishing is done by someone else," King said.
King said NATO began laying the groundwork for the spring offensive last December, when it assigned more troops to provide security along Kandahar roads.
As the battle draws closer, Canadian troops should be expected "to be in the thick of it," said King.
The 101st Airborne's second brigade and the 205 Corps of the Afghan army's first brigade are expected to take part in the spring offensive along with British troops.
The Kandahar offensive will see a "comparable" number of troops taking part as are involved in the Marjah assault, said King.
But there will be differences between the two military operations. In Kandahar, insurgents are spread out and thus more difficult to target.
"It's going to be different from what happened in Helmand because Kandahar's a different environment," King said.
"Kandahar's environment is a much more political environment. There's a lot more people. I think it's fair to say that the makeup around the area here in terms of tribal influences and whatnot is certainly different and probably much more complex than it was elsewhere.
"So that just means that we have to start earlier."
With files from The Canadian Press
