What JTF 2 does in Afstan

CDS Hillier provides rather more detail than has been customary:

Canada's ultra secretive JTF2 special forces commandos are becoming "tools of choice" in targeting top Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, the country's top soldier said yesterday.

Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of defence staff, spoke briefly on the operations of the Canadian Forces elite commando unit during an address to the Canadian Club of Ottawa.

"Our special forces are the tools of choice. They are in incredible demand. Our special forces are world class," Gen. Hillier told a luncheon gathering of several hundred.

In the past two years, Gen. Hillier said, JTF2 has been "growing their capacity" to conduct operations on Canadian soil "when needed" and also abroad, specifically Afghanistan.

"They have had significant impact in Afghanistan helping Afghans rebuild their country," Gen. Hillier said in a 45-minute speech in which he quickly singled out the unit for the work it is doing in Afghanistan before he moved on to other topics.

Asked after the speech to expand on the role of JTF2, Gen. Hillier indicated that the unit has taken the fight against the Taliban and anti-western insurgency in southern Afghanistan directly to its top leaders.

Gen. Hillier said the unit is offering "direct support to the Afghan government, and of course trying to mitigate the Taliban threat and particularly their leaders who intimidate, who coerce people into doing things for them. At the soldier level, trying to help neutralize those leaders is a key part of their role and that's what they will continue to do."..

On his trip to Kandahar last year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper spent a night with JTF2 at its main forward operating base west of Kandahar Air Field.

The ability of journalists embedded with the Forces in Kandahar to report on the operations of JTF2 are severely limited through an agreement that forbids them from reporting on the unit in return for being granted access to the base.

Canada's elite forces are generally assumed to be operating with similar commandos from the United States and Britain in southern Afghanistan, and many pundits have suggested they have been particularly active along the border with Pakistan, where anti-western insurgents are based...