Canada's top general pressured lawmakers to support a motion extending the country's military mission in Afghanistan, saying extended debate may be opening its soldiers up to attacks by the Taliban.
Chief of Defense Staff General Rick Hillier said on Friday that the Taliban was watching the political debate over whether to extend Canada's operation in dangerous southern Afghanistan past next February and was looking for signs of weakness.
"We are, in the eyes of the Taliban, in a window of extreme vulnerability. And the longer we go without that clarity, with the issue in doubt, the more the Taliban will target us as a perceived weak link," Hillier said.
He said he could not rule out that Taliban suicide bombings last week may have been related to the parliamentary debate. A suicide car bomb explosion targeting a Canadian military convoy killed 37 civilians on Monday and more than 100 people were killed on Feb. 13 by a suicide bomber outside Kandahar City.
"I'm not going to stand here and tell you that the suicide bombings of this past week have been related to the debate back here in Canada. But I also cannot stand here and say that they are not," Hillier said.
"And, certainly, there is a perception out there that the Taliban will try to take advantage of the debate back here [in Canada] and try to prevent a cohesive mission and will indeed attempt to attack our Canadian Forces in Kandahar," he said.
Canada's minority Conservative government has been trying to extend the military operation in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province, the former Taliban stronghold. The government faced pressure from the opposition to withdraw Canada's troops after the deaths of 78 soldiers and a diplomat.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper unveiled a proposal on Thursday to withdraw forces in 2011. The proposal resulted from a compromise with opposition Liberals, who were against extending the mission and had threatened to force a vote aimed at toppling the government.
Parliament will vote on extending the mission next month -- a confidence vote that would trigger early elections if rejected. An agreement would avoid an early election over the issue.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS