Canadians Leave Panjwaii as Mission Winds Down

An austere ceremony in Kandahar marks the end of the Canadian Forces' presence in the once-Taliban-held Panjwaii district.

A Canadian regiment in Afghanistan handed over control of Panjwaii district, its principle battle zone, to the U.S. today, as the Canadian combat mission nears its end. Brig.-Gen. Dan Milner will formally cede total command of Candian-controlled land on Thursday, at which point the combat mission in Kandahar will be completed, five years after Canadian soldiers first entered the war-torn province. Panjwaii had been ruled by the Taliban until 2006, when Canadian and American forces began sweeping out the insurgent fighters in some of the fiercest battles the Afghan war has seen. Since 2002, when Canada first officially joined the NATO mission in Afghanistan, 157 soldiers have died and hundreds more have been wounded in the central-Asian country.