Kandahar Province

General information
Geography
Politics and administration
Military deployments
Security
Social issues
Maps
See also

General information

Geography

Politics and administration

Five southern governors and PRT leaders

: (Photo by Sergeant Carole Morissette, Canadian Defence.) Five Governors of Afghanistan’s southern provinces held a meeting at the Governor’s Palace in Kandahar City to discuss security, reconstruction and unity of effort. Left to Right: 2nd Mr. Jan Muhamad Akbari (Daikundi Province), 4th Brigadier General David Fraser (Regional Command South Commander), 5th Mr. Dilbar Jan Arman (Zabul Province), 6th Mr. Abdul Hakim Munib (Uruzgan Province), 7th Major General Benjamin (Freakly Commander of Combined Joint Task Force-76), 8th Mr. Asadullah Khalid (Kandahar Province), and 10th Mr. Daud (Helmand Province). Flickr, AR2006-H026-0037a, 25 Apr 2006, http://www.flickr.com/photos/85013738@N00/135957907/.

Five Governors of Afghanistan’s southern provinces held a meeting at the Governor’s Palace in Kandahar City to discuss security, reconstruction and unity of effort. Left to Right: 2nd Mr. Jan Muhamad Akbari (Daikundi Province), 4th Brigadier General David Fraser (Regional Command South Commander), 5th Mr. Dilbar Jan Arman (Zabul Province), 6th Mr. Abdul Hakim Munib (Uruzgan Province), 7th Major General Benjamin (Freakly Commander of Combined Joint Task Force-76), 8th Mr. Asadullah Khalid (Kandahar Province), and 10th Mr. Daud (Helmand Province), 25 April 2006.

Source: Photo by Sergeant Carole Morissette, Canadian Defence, available at Flickr.com

Military deployments

Afghan forces in Kandahar Province – the Australian-mentored Afghan battalions Kandaks may be deployed if requested

British forces in Kandahar Province include elements from Army, Navy and Air Force units.

Australian forces deployed in Kandahar Province include:

CH-47 Chinook helicopter detachment at Kandahar Airfield;
Kandahar Mobile Control and Reporting Unit at Kandahar Airfield;
Special Operations Task Group at ???;

Canadian forces deployed in Kandahar Province include:

1200 person infantry battle group
Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT)
National Support Element (NSE) in Kandahar
National Command Element (NCE) at Kandahar Airfield;
Multinational Medical Unit (MMU) at Kandahar Airfield.

Operation Moshtarak

Australia appoints new senior position to NATO, Linda Mottram, ABC Radio, 19 March 2010

FAULKNER: In Operation Moshtarak for example, ADF personnel conducted operations in Kandahar province to disrupt insurgent routes in Helmand. Australia has other force elements deployed in support of broader ISAF efforts, such as our artillery group in Helmand and our Chinooks.

MOTTRAM: Operation Moshtarak, which means together started in hard-core Taliban territory in Helmand province. The military phase there is now largely over, giving way to a civilian phase, while troops are moving on to the less highly contested, but still very dangerous Kandahar province. Its a region by region strategy and John Faulkner says Australia will continue to be involved.

FAULKNER: Australia will play it’s part which could again see ADF elements and their ANA partners supporting the fight.

Security

Bombings rock Afghan city of Kandahar, Nasrat Shoib, The Age, 16 April 2010

As many as six people including foreigners have been killed in a suicide car bombing targeting a foreign security company in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, officials say. Britain said it was investigating after reports that its nationals may have been among the dead in the attack in the provincial capital late on Thursday.

Australian troops join new front, Dan Oakes, The Age, 26 March 2010

AUSTRALIAN troops are to embark on a new front in the Afghan war, joining a looming coalition offensive against the Taliban in the southern province of Kandahar… Australian special forces and helicopters will be involved in the summer campaign by NATO-led forces.

…Afghan army battalions – known as kandaks – will take part in the offensive if the coalition asks for them, along with dozens of Australians who have been training them.

Major Afghan offensive ‘under way’, Al Jazeera, 18 March 2010

The US has said a new offensive to drive the Taliban from the southern Afghanistan city of Kandahar is under way and will steadily “ramp up” in the months ahead.

The military and political efforts against the Taliban around Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second largest city, are the next step in the US-led strategy to end a war now in its ninth year.

Afghan gov’t to send more police to Kandahar, Rahim Faiez, AP, 16 March 2010

Afghanistan’s government will provide more than 1,000 police reinforcements to the southern province of Kandahar after Taliban attacks killed dozens of people there ahead of a coming offensive on the insurgent stronghold, an official said Tuesday.

The Ministry of Interior agreed with a provincial request for more security, Kandahar Gov. Tooryalai Wesa said. Wesa asked for more police after multiple bombs over the weekend killed at least 35 people in Kandahar city. The Taliban called the attacks a “warning” that they are ready for the war’s next phase.

Afghan and NATO troops are planning to move into Kandahar, the Taliban’s spiritual birthplace, later this year after securing another stronghold in neighboring Helmand province. The southern push is part of a new counterinsurgency strategy and follows President Barack Obama’s decision to send 30,000 new American troops to Afghanistan to reverse insurgent gains.

Some of the 1,100 new Afghan police in Kandahar will come from the capital, Kabul, and some will be recruited and trained locally, Wesa said. It will take a few months to put the new forces in place.

Nearly 8 million Afghan children to benefit in latest UN vaccination drive, UN News Centre, 15 March 2010

Meanwhile, WHO is boosting its stock of medical supplies in the southern province of Kandahar, in anticipation of a deteriorating security situation and possible population displacement, Nilab Mobarez of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) told reporters in Kabul today. The UN is continuing to monitor the situation in the neighbouring southern province of Helmand in the wake of recently military operations there, and have increased emergency supplies in the area, UNAMA added.

Two Views from Qandahar, Tom Perriello, Afghanistan Watch, 6 Jul 2007.

“The logical link between enabling corrupt warlords and undermining our own counter-insurgency efforts is crucial to understand. A corrupt government does not make people pro-insurgency. It simply means people no longer have a dog in the fight. Between a corrupt government (who demand payoffs) or the Taliban and other anti-government forces (who offer handouts), you follow the path of least resistance and try to stay out of the way. And then there is the rising antipathy towards international forces, driven by almost daily reports of civilian casualties and busting into the privacy of homes. Every day I was there ended with news reports of a new attack somewhere in the region. And the men cannot say enough about the emasculating dishonor of having their homes invaded, including the private areas for women.”

Social issues

Maps

Kandahar Province, AIMS, 2003 [820.00 KB PDF].

Kandahar City Map, AIMS [273.00 KB PDF].

Kandahar City Government Offices & Public Facilities, AIMS [68.50 KB PDF].

Kandahar-Kabul highway, US, Department of State, 2003.