Operation Athena was the

Canadian Forces } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force. ...

' contribution to the

International Security Assistance Force ' ps, کمک او همکاري ' , allies = Afghanistan , opponents = Taliban Al-Qaeda , commander1 = , commander1_label = Commander , commander2 = , commander2_label = , commander3 = , comman ...

(ISAF) in Afghanistan. The operation was divided in two phases: the first one took place from July 2003 to July 2005 in the

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

region and the second one from August 2005 to December 2011 in the

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a List of cities in Afghanistan, city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population ...

area. The operation's main objective was to improve Afghanistan's security and governance. Operation Athena in Kandahar constituted the longest combat mission in the history of Canadian Forces. With over 40,000 Canadian military units that, at some point, entered the country—often several times—this operation constitutes the largest military deployment of the Canadian Forces since

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

.Lee Berthiaume,
End of Afghan mission leaves vets grappling with their return to Canada
', National Post, February 27th, 2012, Page consulted on October 8th, 2012

Context

Following the terrorist attacks on

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, the United States started a military campaign against the

Taliban regime The government of Afghanistan, officially called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is the central government of Afghanistan, a unitary state. Under the leadership of the Taliban, the government is a theocracy and an emirate with political powe ...

and

Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

in Afghanistan. Canada officially joined this campaign on October 9, 2001. Operation Athena followed

Operation Apollo Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...

, codename for the initial deployment of Canadian Force troops in Afghanistan from October 2001 to October 2003. Operation Athena was an integral part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan created by the

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1386 United Nations Security Council resolution 1386, adopted unanimously on 20 December 2001, after reaffirming all resolutions on the situation in Afghanistan, particularly resolutions 1378 (2001) and 1383 (2001), the Council authorised the establ ...

on December 13, 2001. Thereafter, other

United Nations Security Council Resolutions A United Nations Security Council resolution is a United Nations resolution adopted by the fifteen members of the Security Council (UNSC); the United Nations (UN) body charged with "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peac ...

have extended the ISAF's mandate. The military operation in Afghanistan was part of a government-wide effort; indeed, Canada is one of the main international donors in Afghanistan and several other ministries were involved along with the

Canadian Department of National Defence The Department of National Defence (DND; french: Ministère de la Défense nationale) is the department of the Government of Canada which supports the Canadian Armed Forces in its role of defending Canadian national interests domestically and i ...

Purpose

Operation Athena's objective was to assist the Afghan government in order to help it govern better in a more stable environment.Operation Athena
on the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command website, Page consulted on January 4th, 2012 Its purpose was to deploy 5300 Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, within a coalition of about forty countries.
Canadian Involvement
', Radio-Canada, October 31st, 2008, Page consulted on the January 12th, 2012 In this context, the ISAF was in charge of fighting the

insurgents An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irreg ...

, and on a wider scale, was also responsible of the development and maintenance of security; Canada was, in terms of number of troops provided to the ISAF, the fifth country after the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The

Kandahar Province Kandahār ( ps, ; Kandahār, prs, ; ''Qandahār'') is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southern part of the country, sharing a border with Pakistan, to the south. It is surrounded by Helmand in the west, Uruzgan ...

provincial reconstruction team (PRT) aims to help the Afghan government to rebuild the country with the help of developmental projects, but also to extend its authority and to provide services to the citizens. The PRT – one of the 27 in Afghanistan – was under Canadian responsibility during Phase Two of Operation Athena. The Kandahar PRT was composed of diplomats, engineers, policemen, correctional officials and soldiers.Provincial Reconstruction Teams
on the Canadian involvement in Afghanistan website, page consulted on January 5th, 2012 It represented the Afghan government before the Province's local authorities.

Phases of the Operation

Phase One

Operation Athena began on 17 July 2003 with the installation of Brigadier-General Peter Devlin as commander of the ISAF's Kabul Multi-National Brigade. Two days later, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment began deploying as the first rotation of Task Force Kabul. The operation evolved into a 1,900 personnel task force which provided assistance to civilian infrastructure such as well-digging and repair of local buildings. ISAF's primary objective in 2004 was ensuring the safe conduct of Afghanistan's first democratic election, which was held on 9 October 2004.

Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...

was declared the winner, and on 9 December 2004 he was inaugurated President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Phase one of Operation Athena ended in July 2005.

Phase Two

In 2005, ISAF began to extend its operations beyond Kabul to support the development and growth of Afghanistan's governmental institutions, especially its national security forces. In August 2005, the second phase of Operation Athena began with the Canadian Forces assuming command of

from a United States Army task force deployed under

Operation Enduring Freedom Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) was the official name used synonymously by the U.S. government for both the War in Afghanistan (2001–2014) and the larger-scale Global War on Terrorism. On 7 October 2001, in response to the September 11 at ...

History

Operation Athena started on July 17, 2003 in the Kabul region when Brigadier General Peter Devlin was assigned to the commandment of the multinational ISAF brigade, the troops' deployment was scheduled to effectively start on July 19, with a battlegroup composed of the 3rd

Royal Canadian Regiment The Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) is an infantry regiment of the Canadian Army. The regiment consists of four battalions, three in the Regular Force and one in the primary reserve. The RCR is ranked 1st in the order of precedence amongst Canadian A ...

Battalion. The ISAF became a coalition directed by the

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

on August 11, 2003.
History
''on the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan website, page consulted on January 4th, 2012 The very same day, Major General Andrew Leslie was appointed second in command of the ISAF. The Canadian embassy in Kabul opened in August 2003.
History of our intervention Chronology of Canada's intervention in Afghanistan 2001–2011
'' on the website of the Canadian intervention in Afghanistan, page consulted on January 9th, 2011
The ISAF's main role in 2003 was to establish and to maintain security in Kabul when the new

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

was being written by the

Loya Jirga A jirga ( ps, جرګه, ''jərga'') is an assembly of leaders that makes decisions by consensus according to Pashtunwali, the Pashtun social code. It is conducted in order to settle disputes among the Pashtuns, but also by members of other ethnic ...

, symbolizing the end of the Taliban regime.
Afghanistan: Operation Athena
'', Radio-Canada, January 29th, 2004, consulted online on January 12th, 2012 On February 9, 2004, Lieutenant-General

Rick Hillier Rick may refer to: People *Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name *Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality *Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and mycol ...

was appointed Commander of the ISAF. At this time, the Canadian military represented 40% of the ISAF. The year 2004 held the first

2004 Afghan presidential election Presidential elections were held in Afghanistan on October 9, 2004. Hamid Karzai won the elections with 55.4% of the vote and three times more votes than any other candidate. Twelve candidates received less than 1% of the vote. It is estimated th ...

on October 9, 2004 and it was of ISAF's responsibility to ensure that they were properly conducted.
In 2005, the ISAF's efforts started to extend to the outside of Kabul. The second phase of Operation Athena started with the deployment of a battlegroup composed of the 2nd Royal Canadian Regiment Battalion in Kandahar in August 2005. This battlegroup constituted the Kandahar – Task Force, taking over the American task force deployed in this region during

.
Joint Task Forces in Afghanistan
' on the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command website, page consulted on January 5th, 2012 Thus, the Canadian Forces played an important role in one of Afghanistan's most dangerous regions.
CBC, 10 mai 2011, Page consulted on October 8th, 2012 This second phase constituted the Canadian Forces' first participation to an oversea operation as an actor of a government-wide deployment.

Rotations

The battle groups were composed of a battalion of

regular force In the Canadian Armed Forces, a Regular Force unit or person is part of the full-time military, as opposed to being part of the Primary Reserve which has more flexibility. There are many bases and wings across Canada, and factors like trade, career ...

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine i ...

which would normally remain in Afghanistan for about six months.

External links

CBC.ca In Depth: Operation Athena

Department of National Defence Canada – Operation ATHENA

Commander of the Army visits Operation ATHENA , by Captain Mark Gough

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athena Military operations of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) involving Canada