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Small Canadian military group to stay in Kandahar past July

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A small contingent of the Canadian military responsible for perimeter security, housing and runway maintenance at Kandahar Airfield will remain at work on the base for several months after Canada’s combat mission in Afghanistan ends in July.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A small contingent of the Canadian military responsible for perimeter security, housing and runway maintenance at Kandahar Airfield will remain at work on the base for several months after Canada’s combat mission in Afghanistan ends in July.

A group of about 40 servicemen and women will continue to provide support for ISAF forces until at least late October or early November, said Lt.-Col. Douglas Baird, the Canadian chief of airfield plans.

“Our billets are part of something called critical establishment, so they have to be manned,” Baird said.

“Other countries hopefully will come forward and pick up the billets that we’re currently providing personnel for.”

The Canadians are part of a 300-member ISAF team overshadowed by the coalition forces carrying out operations outside the wire. But they are a vital backbone to the operations of Kandahar Airfield, the largest military base in southern Afghanistan.

“We tend to blend into the wallpaper,” Baird said Monday from his office in the bomb-scarred airfield building known colloquially as the Taliban’s Last Stand.

“It’s true we’re not the ones out there carrying the rifles and doing the counterinsurgency mission, but we still do perform valuable roles.”

During Kandahar’s rainy season a year ago, flash flooding swamped parts of the airfield with nearly two metres of water. Canadian engineers later helped to build berms to redirect floodwaters around the camp to minimize the damage of rainstorms this year.

“This time, when the floods happened, (they) weren’t as severe,” Baird said. “However, there were culverts that were washed out, bits of road that were washed out on the airfield and in and around the residential area here too.

“Our engineers were deeply involved in planning the repair and the reconstruction of all of the damaged infrastructure as a result of that.”

The Canadians also help oversee shipments of food and fuel into the base.