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.
‘EYE FOR AN EYE’: Two of the men were shot by a male relative of the victims, whose families turned down the opportunity to offer them amnesty, the Supreme Court said Four men were yesterday publicly executed in Afghanistan, the Supreme Court said, the highest number of executions to be carried out in one day since the Taliban’s return to power. The executions in three separate provinces brought to 10 the number of men publicly put to death since 2021, according to an Agence France-Presse tally. Public executions were common during the Taliban’s first rule from 1996 to 2001, with most of them carried out publicly in sports stadiums. Two men were shot around six or seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the center
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is leaning into his banking background as his country fights a trade war with the US, but his financial ties have also made him a target for conspiracy theories. Incorporating tropes familiar to followers of the far-right QAnon movement, conspiratorial social media posts about the Liberal leader have surged ahead of the country’s April 28 election. Posts range from false claims he recited a “satanic chant” at a campaign event to artificial intelligence (AI)-generated images of him in a pool with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “He’s the ideal person to be targeted here, for sure, due to
Australia’s opposition party yesterday withdrew election promises to prevent public servants from working from home and to slash more than one in five federal public-sector jobs. Opposition leader Peter Dutton announced his conservative Liberal Party had dropped its pledge that public servants would be required to work in their offices five days a week except in exceptional circumstances. “I think we made a mistake in relation to this policy,” Dutton told Nine Network television. “I think it’s important that we say that and recognize it, and our intention was to make sure that where taxpayers are working hard and their money is
DISPUTE: Beijing seeks global support against Trump’s tariffs, but many governments remain hesitant to align, including India, ASEAN countries and Australia China is reaching out to other nations as the US layers on more tariffs, in what appears to be an attempt by Beijing to form a united front to compel Washington to retreat. Days into the effort, it is meeting only partial success from countries unwilling to ally with the main target of US President Donald Trump’s trade war. Facing the cratering of global markets, Trump on Wednesday backed off his tariffs on most nations for 90 days, saying countries were lining up to negotiate more favorable conditions. China has refused to seek talks, saying the US was insincere and that it
RSS