KABUL — Canadian troops will continue mountain reconnaissance missions because resistance will likely escalate around the Afghan capital even though there have been no attacks since June 7, says Canada's top soldier here.

"There have been no attempted suicide bombs and there have been no persons shot ... since the German bus attack," Maj.-Gen. Andrew Leslie said in an interview Sunday.

However, Leslie acknowledged leadership at the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, anticipates incidents will resume as the weather moderates.

The last attack occurred June 7 when an explosives-packed taxi rammed a bus carrying German peacekeepers to the airport for a flight home. The attack killed four Germans and wounded 29 others.

Leslie, deputy commander of the NATO-led force to which Canada is contributing 1,950 troops, said informants warn them of potential attacks daily. Arrests have been made and plots foiled, he said.

He said reports of insurgents crossing the border from Pakistan are coming in every couple of days. But many of the reports, he suspects, are hoaxes.

"Most of the informers are not very reliable," he said. "Some of them get paid, and some of them may tell us what we want to hear or don't want to hear. You have to sort the wheat from the chaff."

Yet he said allies have confirmed smaller groups of threes and fours are poised on the Afghanistan border with the intent to conduct suicide attacks on U.S. and ISAF forces in the country.

ISAF is responsible for the security of Kabul and the transitional government of President Hamid Karzai.

Leslie said some incursions in Paktika and Paktia provinces just south of Kabul have numbered up to 300 at a time. Attacks and other incidents have been steadily creeping closer to Kabul in recent weeks.

U.S.-led coalition forces -- not part of ISAF -- have been battling insurgents mainly to the east and south, while many of the outlying areas around Kabul had been left unattended for more than a year.

On Aug. 20, ISAF almost doubled the area of interest assigned to the Canadian contingent, encompassing regions far from city streets.

The reconnaissance platoon of 3rd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, has conducted two extended missions into mountains near the capital in the last 10 days.

While ISAF has access to remote-controlled aircraft and satellite imagery, Leslie said getting troops on the ground is important as satellite imagery can be fleeting and fickle.

"It would be illogical for us not to assume that some unpleasant elements are up in the hills behind us,"' said Leslie. "It has very good dominance over the southern half of Kabul.

"Observation and information are the key to survival around here, which is one reason why we're being fairly proactive in sending Canadian soldiers up into the mountains to see for themselves and make sure people know we're there."

Leslie said establishing presence and demonstrating deterrence are part of the reason the soldiers are going into the hills and conducting overt, rather than covert, missions, moving in daylight rather than at night.

"We're not here necessarily to kill," he said. "In the first instance, we're here to help. If we can deter them from doing silly things, then that's half the battle."

The mountains are essentially empty, he said. Without conducting its own patrols, there is no one there to inform ISAF of what is happening.

"Unless people are there to have eyes on, even in this era of incredible technologies, the best way to find another person and stop them is with a trained soldier."

Accompanied by three Afghan soldiers, Canadian reconnaissance troops discovered routes into Kabul through the mountains accessed by foot and even sighted three suspected insurgents during a three-day mission last week.

Leslie said besides establishing presence and deterrence, the missions have shown Afghan transitional authorities, national military forces and local militia that ISAF is willing to co-operate in its efforts.

Conducted in an area from which rocket attacks have been launched on the city, the missions have also gathered invaluable local knowledge of living, patrolling and fighting conditions, he said.