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OTTAWA — The “dark cloud” of a Taliban prison break and offensive has at least brought a silver lining in the form of a counteroffensive that has highlighted the Afghan army's ability to plan and execute their own operations, Canada's Chief of Defence Staff insisted Wednesday night.
General Rick Hillier, appearing before a Commons committee on Afghanistan, acknowledged that the Taliban has a success they can “crow about” in a daring prison break that nearly emptied Sarpoza prison.
But he insisted that the response to the Taliban offensive that followed has underscored the development of the Afghan National Army.
“The silver lining, the positive thing here is, all of a sudden, we've seen what we've been working to produce now for the last two, 21/2 years … to develop their units, and develop their leaders, and get them to take responsibility for security operations,” Gen. Hillier said.
Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier appears before a Commons special committee hearing witnesses on the mission in Afghanistan, on Parliament Hill Wednesday night. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)
Taliban insurgents have taken several villages in the Arghandab region outside Kandahar city this week, but Afghan forces supported by Canadian and other NATO troops have launched a counteroffensive to retake them.
Canada's top soldier said the Afghans are leading operations of thousands of soldiers now, when they struggled to operate units of hundreds a year ago.
“When we conducted operations with one of their battalions last November and October, up in roughly that same area, they had difficulty running a battalion. A small battalion, and we had actually a significant Canadian Forces unit with them to make sure that perhaps we could backstop them and support them,” he said.
“And now they have got certainly a full-up brigade operating up near the Arghandab. They've done all the planning for themselves, putting it in place, and they appear to be relatively successful in being able to implement those operations.”
He insisted that Taliban spokesmen have exaggerated the numbers of insurgents in the Arghandab region, and the number of villages they have taken this week.
The general, in his last month in command of the Canadian Forces before he retires, was certainly placing a positive light on a week that has seen obvious setbacks. The prison break, he acknowledged, was a success for the Taliban, but he insisted that such setbacks will occur, and the forces must stick to their plans.
Opposition politicians, however, asked whether the fact that Canadian and NATO intelligence did not detect plans for the Sarpoza prison break indicates the Afghan government and allies are losing the battle for the “hearts and minds” of people in the region.
Gen. Hillier argued the forces face a complex situation and a stream of conflicting information, and the Taliban will be able to surprise Canadian Forces on occasion.
“It did obviously achieve their objective. And therefore they can crow about it because it was obviously one of their successful attacks,” he said.
“But to say that we absolutely therefore should have known about that one is to not show an understanding of the complexity of the situation on the ground.”
