Three Canadian warships have passed through the Suez Canal heading for the Indian Ocean to link up with coalition forces taking part in the strikes on Afghanistan, canal authorities told AFP Tuesday.
They are the fuel re-supply ship HMCS Preserver, the destroyer and helicopter launch-ship HMCS Iroquois, and the frigate HMCS Charlottetown, the same source said.
Egypt has pledged maximum support for the US-led anti-terrorism campaign.
The ships form part of the Canadian Apollo operation of support for the forces deployed in the Gulf.
Another Canadian warship, the HMCS Halifax, sailed through the Suez towards the Gulf on Oct. 22 to link up with the anti-terrorist coalition.
Canada has committed to providing six warships to the US-led military coalition, as well as six planes for transport or surveillance, and around 2,000 soldiers, said the agency.
However, the Toronto-based newspaper The Star quoted analysts as saying that Canada should not rush headlong into peacekeeping commitments in Afghanistan that it cannot realistically meet.
Canada's armed forces are already stretched with peacekeeping obligations in the Balkans and Middle East, and several experts doubted Ottawa would be able to commit significant resources for any extended period of time in a post-Taliban Afghanistan, they said.
"It's just not the kind of operation we could do in any significant way," said Douglas Bland, dean of Defense Management Studies at Queen's University. "Not without significant readjustments to what we're already doing."
Speculation has mounted that political and military strategists in the US are scrambling to form a plan for a post-Taliban regime in Afghanistan in the wake of strong advances by the coalition-backed Northern Alliance.
US and British special forces are already on the ground in the war-torn Central Asian country – Albawaba.com
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