CANADIANS RAID KABUL DRUG GANG

Police-Style Strike On Traffickers Marks New Direction For Troops

CAMP JULIEN, Afghanistan -- The raid dubbed Tsunami began before dawn
yesterday as light armoured vehicles carrying Canadian soldiers and Kabul
city police roared out of the base toward a crumbling neighbourhood
believed to house drug traffickers with connections to a terrorist group.

By the time it was over, 16 men were in custody -- a result of the first
offensive action by Canadian soldiers since they arrived in Kabul last
August. The raid was a significant departure for the Canadians, who had
concentrated on forging contacts, training police and hosting dinners for
Afghan National Army officials and tribal leaders.

Yesterday, those contacts paid off.

"If there's a message ... it's that there's more than just one game in
town," said Lt.-Col. Don Denne, the commanding officer at Camp Julien, part
of Canada's contribution to the International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF) in Afghanistan. "We're now playing. Does this make us more of a
target? Possibly."

Military patrols by Canadians in troubled Kabul neighbourhoods have had a
measurable impact on crime, said Lt.-Col. Denne. The focus has shifted
toward rooting out criminal elements.

"We're taking the fight to the source," he said.

The raid by 200 soldiers and dozens of Kabul city police had been in the
works for two months, after intelligence sources alerted Canadians to
suspicious activity at the compound. It ended yesterday morning, as large
bags of money were removed from one of the two residences on the compound,
along with an unknown quantity of drugs and two AK-47 assault rifles.

Handcuffed and hooded before being brought outside and lined up against the
wall of the compound, one of the younger men began crying, and asked
through an interpreter, "What is going on? Am I going to die?"

Another suspect asked when they were going to be set free. He said he and
others had airline tickets to go on the hajj -- the pilgrimage to Mecca
that ends with the largest celebration in the Muslim faith, Eid ul-Adha.

It is believed some of the suspects may be associated with
Hezb-i-Islami-Gulbuddin (HiG), founded by one of the most notorious
right-wing Islamic leaders of Afghanistan, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The group
has been linked to Osama bin Laden.

Five of the suspects were brought to Camp Julien later in the day for
questioning.

The Canadians and Kabul city police used ladders to scale the
three-metre-high mud-brick walls of the compound, located at the end of a
dirt road in a neighbourhood of crumbling mud-brick houses. One soldier's
ladder broke. He grabbed onto the railing of a balcony and pulled himself
over, escaping injury. Another soldier was slightly injured when he fell
into a sewage-filled hole in the street while walking to the compound in
the dark.

"Walking through open sewage is a common occurrence for us," said Sgt. Sean
Bechard, one of the other soldiers on the raid. Sgt. Bechard and his fellow
soldiers said they felt confident going in, having trained for years for
just such a moment. There were two rehearsals at the camp before the team
went in.

"You're so focused on your area of responsibility," said Sgt. Bechard. "We
went in and accomplished what we set out to do. There's a great sense of
accomplishment in that."

One shot was fired, after a metal battering ram failed to force open a
locked door. A second shell jammed in the shotgun. Finally a soldier used
his shoulder to force open the door.

The raid was somewhat compromised when the soldiers came upon a pack of
dogs before they reached the site. The dogs started barking, and continued
barking, throughout most of the raid.

"We still had an element of surprise. Not as much surprise as we would have
liked," said Maj. John Vass, the officer commanding the Parachute Company.

Maj. Vass said he was surprised by the number of people in the concrete
buildings, furnished with lumps of Afghan rugs and cooking stoves.

A total of 49 people -- 17 men, 11 women and 21 children, occupied the two
residences and three smaller structures on the compound.