Kandahar is key city in Afghan war

[unhappycamper]

Kandahar is key city in Afghan war
By KATHY GANNON
Associated Press Writer
Nov 25, 12:07 PM EST

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- A wedding was called off because international troops killed the groom. A suicide bomber blew himself up in front of a police patrol. An old woman was beaten by the Taliban after she tried to stop them from taking her son.

And all of this happened in just two weeks in the same place - Kandahar.

The fight for Kandahar, Afghanistan's second largest city, shows some of the biggest hurdles faced by the U.S. as it tries to implement a strategy of winning over the ordinary people of Afghanistan.

Kandahar, a city of an estimated 800,000 people in the south, is an important piece in the battle for Afghanistan, and losing control of it would be a huge blow to the coalition.

The city - and the outlying province with the same name - will be a focus of the additional buildup of tens of thousands of troops which President Barack Obama is expected to order for Afghanistan.


Rest of article at: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_AFGHANISTAN_WINNING_THE_PEACE?SITE=DCSAS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-11-25-07-46-52