Canada's top soldier in Afghanistan confirmed Thursday that insurgents have been defeated outside of Kandahar City -- but he added with certainty that they will regroup and attack again, as they have done in the past.
"There is no doubt in my mind ... that further insurgent attacks will take place in the months ahead,'' Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson said. "The enemy is a thinking enemy -- not an inanimate object.''
"As we say in the army: The enemy has a vote. We have to accept that.''
The area around Kandahar was peaceful on Thursday after a week of rocket explosions and helicopters buzzing above -- following a brazen Taliban attack on Kandahar city's Sarposa prison last Friday. Hundreds of suspected Taliban insurgents were freed in that attack.
NATO forces say the area is now under control. Both the Afghan National Army and International Security Assistance Force swept the Taliban from the Arghandab district, where the Taliban had gathered after last week's prison break.
Thompson said troops scoured three-quarters of the Arghandab district and encountered no resistance. The soldiers planned to complete their sweep on Friday.
While NATO forces confirmed insurgents have been pushed from the outskirts of Kandahar City, they cast doubt on claims by the provincial governor, Asadullah Khalid, that hundreds of Taliban militants were killed or injured in the operation.
NATO forces suggested Thursday that no more than 150 Taliban fighters had been in the area.
"Those that chose to stay and fight were defeated," said Thompson.
"The reality of the situation in Kandahar province is this: Taliban insurgents can cause temporary disruptions and intimidate the local population, but they cannot hold ground."
"Every time we meet them on the field of battle, insurgents either flee or are destroyed."
On Wednesday morning, at least 800 Afghan and Canadian NATO forces launched a major offensive against the outnumbered insurgents who moved into the district and claimed villages along the Arghandab river this week.
Backed by aircraft and superior weapons, the Canadian and Afghan forces pounded the insurgent fighters back from villages along the Arghandab river.
In Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper acknowledged the prison break was a "setback'' to Canada's plan to turn over security to the Afghan government by 2011.
"The good news is the Afghan government has responded very quickly and very directly to this particular challenge,'' Harper said in Huntsville, Ont.
