# Elite force operates in Kandahar shadows



## GAP (26 Feb 2010)

Elite force operates in Kandahar shadows
If you hear about JTF2, something's gone wrong
Article Link
Allan Woods Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA–There are facts – few and far between – about the exploits of JTF2 in Afghanistan and then there are the long, dark shadows.

The unknown is as black as the operations that Canada's premier counterterrorist force conducts in Afghanistan. The facts, relayed by Col. Bernd Horn, former deputy commander of the military wing that runs Joint Task Force Two, are shocking to the uninitiated.

"Few realize Canadian (special operation forces) personnel have removed an entire generation of Taliban leadership in Kandahar, many of whom were responsible for the deaths of Canadian service personnel," he wrote in the Canadian Military Journal.

"For individuals who have no understanding of special operation forces, that they exist, how they operate, what they do ... sure it is (a surprise)," Horn said in an interview Thursday from Kingston, where he is now a professor at the Canadian Defence Academy.

JTF2, which originally trained for hostage rescue and stealth missions at a base outside Ottawa, has been working alongside British, American, German and other special operation teams since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

Its elite soldiers were honoured by former U.S. president George W. Bush in 2004 for heroism. Along with U.S. Navy SEALs, Delta Force and other nations attached to Task Force K-Bar they killed more than 100 Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters over six months and destroyed training camps.

"The warriors of ... Task Force K-Bar established an unprecedented 100 per cent mission success rate across a broad spectrum of special operations under extremely difficult and constantly dangerous conditions," the commendation read.

But if JTF2 makes it into the news, it often means something has gone wrong. A 2002 photograph showing members of the unit exiting a U.S. military airplane with Afghan detainees is one such example. Then-prime minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal government had denied Canadian soldiers were even taking prisoners at the time.

As reported in the Star Thursday, another problem occurred in the winter of 2007 when three of four detainees captured by JTF2 could not be found by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which was tasked with investigating prisoners' well-being. The incident is contained in censored government documents that are at the centre of the Afghan detainee saga.

In early 2007, a contingent of Canadian special forces was operating from the former compound of Taliban cleric Mullah Omar west of Kandahar city. Canadians knew the base as Graceland but it was better known by its U.S. name of Camp Gecko or Firebase Maholic.

Apart from U.S., Canadian and other international special forces, the base is believed to house CIA officers and, some suspect, Canadian spies who operate in Kandahar.
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## PanaEng (26 Feb 2010)

Good article.

```
Horn says the strategic boost that special operation forces have provided to the Canadians in Kandahar is like an "invisible hand."
"You don't hear about them. However, they are having a dramatic effect in the operational theatre."
```
I wonder if the taliban live in fear of them or if they even know they walk among them?

cheers,
Frank


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