bobdina
12-02-2009, 05:54 PM
Special forces provide unique abilities in Afghanistan
Tom Coghlan: Analysis
Five hundred members of the special forces represents a huge deployment of the British Army’s most prized and potent asset. And it is one that will draw approval from General Stanley McChrystal, the overall commander in Afghanistan and the former commander of US Special Forces in Iraq.
In Iraq, British and US special forces and intelligence units under General McChrystal’s command worked in close partnership to develop a new way of attacking insurgent organisations, one that tried to outdo the insurgents in terms of information gathering and speed. It is now being used against the Taleban in Afghanistan.
“The better connected and faster we are at processing information the more we are able to achieve what we called ‘information dominance’ — identify targets, go after those targets rapidly, exploit the information that we have from that and quickly cross reference that information to continue that process,” General McChrystal told The Times in a recent interview.
He went on to voice his “incredible respect” for British special forces, adding that they would be used in Afghanistan “to capitalise on their unique ability to hit precise targets. My experience of the last few years is that the maturity of that force, its flexibility and agility, is unprecedented.”
The SAS in Baghdad and Anbar province helped to cripple at least two car bomb networks, killed or captured hundreds of key targets and took part in multiple rescue missions to save hostages such as Norman Kember, the British peace activist.
The Americans were impressed by the ability of the SAS to get up close to a target before striking — a technique known as “close target recce”. Members of the team would apparently dye their skin brown and hair black, don fake gold watches and wear Iraqi clothes to look like locals, and approach a target.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6938275.ece
Tom Coghlan: Analysis
Five hundred members of the special forces represents a huge deployment of the British Army’s most prized and potent asset. And it is one that will draw approval from General Stanley McChrystal, the overall commander in Afghanistan and the former commander of US Special Forces in Iraq.
In Iraq, British and US special forces and intelligence units under General McChrystal’s command worked in close partnership to develop a new way of attacking insurgent organisations, one that tried to outdo the insurgents in terms of information gathering and speed. It is now being used against the Taleban in Afghanistan.
“The better connected and faster we are at processing information the more we are able to achieve what we called ‘information dominance’ — identify targets, go after those targets rapidly, exploit the information that we have from that and quickly cross reference that information to continue that process,” General McChrystal told The Times in a recent interview.
He went on to voice his “incredible respect” for British special forces, adding that they would be used in Afghanistan “to capitalise on their unique ability to hit precise targets. My experience of the last few years is that the maturity of that force, its flexibility and agility, is unprecedented.”
The SAS in Baghdad and Anbar province helped to cripple at least two car bomb networks, killed or captured hundreds of key targets and took part in multiple rescue missions to save hostages such as Norman Kember, the British peace activist.
The Americans were impressed by the ability of the SAS to get up close to a target before striking — a technique known as “close target recce”. Members of the team would apparently dye their skin brown and hair black, don fake gold watches and wear Iraqi clothes to look like locals, and approach a target.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6938275.ece