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NATO rushing to secure Kandahar

23 January 2010 18:01 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Ziya Agazade â€“ APA. U.S. and Canadian forces are rushing to train a police force capable of blunting a Taliban comeback in Kandahar, the major city in Afghanistan’s volatile south, the militants’ spiritual birthplace and the key to turning back the insurgency, APA reports citing â€œAssociated Pressâ€.

It’s part of a larger effort that also aims to deliver services such as electricity and clean drinking water that the Taliban cannot provide â€” encouraging support for the government in a city that was once the Taliban’s headquarters.

Many of the 30,000 U.S. troops ordered to Afghanistan as part of the American surge are expected to be sent to Kandahar. But President Barack Obama has pledged to begin pulling out U.S forces in July 2011 too.

Armed Taliban bands control villages around the city, and Taliban agents move through the city at night, delivering letters warning people against cooperating with the U.S.-backed government. International forces find homemade bombs almost daily as they patrol the city streets.

Measuring success is difficult in a war where public support is as important as heavy weaponry in gaining the upper hand. Although many Kandaharis believe security is better now, the real test will come in the spring â€” traditionally the beginning of fighting season in Afghanistan.