Kandahar City, Afghanistan — Canada relinquished command of two hotly disputed districts in Kandahar where more than 40 Canadian soldiers have died over the past four years, to the U.S. earlier this week.

The quiet transfer of authority for Zhari and Arghandab to the 101st Airborne Division was revealed by Canadian Brig.-Gen Jon Vance on Thursday. It was the first reduction in Task Force Kandahar’s area of military responsibility in Afghanistan since the Paul Martin government authorized combat operations in the southern province in the spring of 2006.

The shift of responsibility for Zhari and Arghandab, which occurred at midnight on Monday, was the result of a surge of U.S. forces into Kandahar ordered by U.S. President Barack Obama and of Canada’s planned withdrawal of combat forces from the province next summer.

Vance celebrated Canada Day by declaring after a 10-hour road tour of Kandahar City in blistering heat that Afghan forces and some of the 4,500 troops who remain under his command had formally “occupied” a security ring around the country’s second largest city. NATO regards the ring is a vital part of its strategy to defeat the Taliban.

“This is the start of a time when we are more capable of guarding access to the city; things like the illegal movement of weapons,” Vance said.

In the past few days, a large number of troops from the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division and from the Afghan National Civil Order Police — which is considered several cuts above the Afghan National Police — has moved into living quarters together at more than a dozen checkpoints on the perimeter of the city. While ANCOP works with the American paratroopers, the ANP will be off on training courses.

“The idea is to disrupt the enemy’s freedom of movement,” said U.S. army Lt.-Col. Bob O’Brien who commands a 50-member joint Canadian-American headquarters in the city. “It is about putting the Afghan national security forces at very visible points throughout the city and working with local people to develop governance.”

Pointing toward a valley near one of the checkpoints, Lt. Col. Dave Oclander, whose battalion from the 82nd Airborne has occupied the checkpoints said, “As we close this down, we expect them to try other routes. The right approach is to get out and engage the local population and run a lot of patrols. You can’t do this if you are just going to remain static at a checkpoint.”

As they inspected much of the same ground with a senior Afghan official only a few days ago, Vance, O’Brien, Oclander and Capt. Lou Cariello, a U.S. navy construction engineer, stared at colour-coded maps where half the checkpoints were marked in red as unready. But those marks on the map had all turned to yellow or green by Thursday after a crash building project overseen by teams of Cariello’s Seabees that levelled ground, erected living quarters and deployed a forest of concrete barriers.

Canadian and American officers have been frustrated by media reports in the U.S. and Canada that security in the provincial capital had deteriorated sharply this year and that the Taliban controlled parts of the city.

“There is no place in the city that is a ‘No Go’ zone,” O’Brien said. “There is no place that we can’t go.

“The security situation is what I would expect to be the norm for this time of year. What we’ve already achieved in the past few weeks is a disruptive effect because of a higher tempo of patrols.”

Referring to his shrinking command as the result of the transfer of Zhari and Arghandab to U.S. control, Vance said “the next step is to seamlessly transfer the city.” However, a decision on when exactly that might take place had not yet been made.

“The city is still under my command until certain conditions are met,” Vance said, without explaining exactly what they were. “One part of the curtain that will not close very quickly is the presence of Canadian military engineers in the city. We won’t be leaving the intelligence realm, either. The fact is that we will still have a co-ordinating function because of the relationships we have in the city.”

Nor would Canada withdraw any time soon an infantry company which protects Canadian diplomats and civilian workers in the city, the general said.

“But the fact is that most of what Canada has here is already out in Panjwaii,” referring to a dangerous district west of Kandahar City where the Royal Canadian Regiment battle group is deployed.