KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Canadian and international troops plan on a continued campaign of harassing the Taliban in southern Afghanistan during what traditionally have been the slow winter months.
The Taliban generally use the winter to reload for the busy fighting season which begins in the spring.
Their fighters are ill-equipped to handle Afghanistan's harsh winter climate and often members of the leadership return home to their families in the larger cities or in Pakistan.
But that will not be the case this year.
Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson, commander of Task Force Kandahar, is taking the approach that the best defence is a good offence.
There have been a number of operations, both big and small in the volatile Zhari, Panjwaii and Arbhandab districts in the regions surrounding Kandahar city in recent months.
The latest Canadian-led operation in the Zhari district involved a battalion of British Royal Commandos, a mechanized brigade from the Royal Canadian Regiment and troops from the 22 Infantry from the United States.
"They went into an area where the insurgents typically enjoy partial or full freedom of movement. The method in which we deployed forces in the area essentially overwhelmed the insurgency too," explained Canadian Maj. Fraser Auld, the operations officer for Task Force Kandahar.
"We know it took them by surprise and we know the insurgents were unable to cope with the synchronized approach in this operation."
The operation yielded an IED factory (improvised explosive device), 24 barrels of home made explosives, numerous anti-personnel mines, a motorcycle rigged with explosives, several 107 mm rockets, small arms, weapons and ammunition and 500 kilograms of hashish.
"This was for Gen. Thompson and his merry men," said Lt. Col. Charles Stickland, commander of 42 Royal Marine Commandos.
"The winter campaign which Gen. Thompson is seeking to fight actually means anywhere he goes he can reach out and touch the insurgents. Each time we do this we make the Taliban understand that there aren't any safe havens," he added.
There have been winter-time operations launched against the Taliban in previous years but simply not to this extent. Auld said the extra activity should pay dividends next spring and summer.
"His goal is to deny them the ability to reconstitute over the winter," said Auld. "He doesn't want them to be able to rest and the intent of all this is when we come into next summer, we've spent the winter degrading them so next summer is better.
An operation in the Zhari district in August also yielded IED making facilities and huge caches of explosives and weapons. Just three months later, insurgents in the area seem to have managed to resupply. That is a concern.
"It's a constant concern that the insurgent you're fighting has the capability to resupply or make his own in terms of home made explosives," said Stickland.
Keeping on top of the Taliban is the key according to those involved in planning these operations.
"If you always have them on the run then they can't keep making these IEDs, so we've actually seen a drop in kinetic activity over the past few weeks since we've stepped up the operational tempo," added Maj. Jason Guinui, operations officer for 3 RCR Battlegroup.
The last mission also uncovered notebooks revealing the identities and phone numbers of other Taliban members, said Auld, and exposed some glaring weaknesses in the Taliban leadership.
"Their fighters demonstrated a lack of will and morale was low. We know on several occasions the insurgents had to actually have a bit of a pep talk because of the fact that they were in such disarray," Auld said.
"Some of the insurgent leadership actually had to bolster insurgents fighters to get back into the fight. They wanted to flee."
Meantime, the U.S. military says its troops killed 17 Taliban during a raid in southern Afghanistan.
Helicopters carried the troops into the Shah Wali Kot district north of Kandahar city Saturday, where they clashed with the militants.
