Canada to pull troops out of Afghanistan by 2011

Canada’s prime minister today vowed to pull troops out of Afghanistan in 2011, the first time he has set a deadline for Canadian soldiers to leave the war-torn country.

Prime minister Stephen Harper said Canadians do not want to keep soldiers in Afghanistan beyond then, and 10 years of war is enough.

“We intend to end it,” Mr Harper told reporters during a breakfast briefing.

Mr Harper’s comments go beyond the agreement his parliament passed in March, which only stipulated that Canada would remove troops from Afghanistan’s southern province of Kandahar in 2011.

The prime minister’s vow to leave comes as the death toll for Canadians approaches 100 in Afghanistan. Canada has lost 97 soldiers and one diplomat in Afghanistan.

The Taliban has warned that they plan to step up attacks during Canada’s national election campaign.

Harper triggered an early election on Sunday, dissolving parliament in a bid to bolster his party’s grip on power in an October 14 vote.

Mr Harper says he expects the vote to produce another minority government but recent polls show the Conservatives could win the majority they need to rule without help from opposition parties.

Harper said today it is not a realistic goal to eradicate the insurgency in Afghanistan by 2011.

Development assistance for the country will continue, Mr Harper added, and a small number of troops would likely stay behind to offer technical support to coalition countries that remain.

Mr Harper said the Afghan mission has been the hardest part of his job as prime minister, adding that he personally called the family of every Canadian soldier who has died during his term.

Canada has 2,500 soldiers stationed in Kandahar province, the former Taliban stronghold that has again emerged as an epicentre of violence.

The country first sent troops to Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, attacks and increased the deployment after declining a US request to dispatch troops to Iraq.

Canada assumed responsibility for Kandahar in 2005. Harper said Canada will have done its part after serving in Afghanistan’s most dangerous province.

“A sovereign government, at some point, has to be primarily responsible for the day-to-day security of the country,” Mr Harper said.

Canadian Retired Maj General Lewis MacKenzie, the commander of a UN force in the Balkans, criticised Harper for announcing a deadline during an election campaign.

“I don’t like deadlines,” MacKenzie said. “I don’t like announcing deadlines to an enemy force that now says to themselves, ’Well, we’re getting rid of the Canadians’ so let’s turn our strategic attack on some other country.”’