Thank you very much, Chair.
I'm very glad to be here. As I said when I first walked in, I think this regular update is very important to this committee so that you have a sense of the things that are happening on the ground. It's only by seeing this on a regular basis that you can actually get a sense for the improvement in the things that are going on, and I'm very pleased to be here.
My primary responsibility on the Strategic Joint Staff is to provide timely and effective military analysis and decision support to the Chief of the Defence Staff, and it's in that context that I'm able to speak here today.
My presentation is primarily on the reportable security issues from July to November inclusive, and I'm prepared, obviously, following the presentation to provide clarification on any of those issues.
I'd like to start with a short explanation about operational security and its relation to our mission in Afghanistan. Our operations there have generated a growing public interest for information. This appetite for information about Government of Canada operations serves positive and lawful objectives required of a parliamentary democracy. Unfortunately, a significant amount of the information requested is operationally sensitive, and its release could prejudice the success of Canadian Forces operations and potentially endanger the lives of our soldiers, members of the whole government team, and the Afghans with whom we work.
Canadians expect the department and the Canadian Forces to protect the security of Canadian troops who are in harm's way, and to mitigate the risks they face as much as possible. We recognize the importance of providing information to the public, and work hard to meet those obligations within the limits of the law. There must, however, be a balance between our response to make information available to the public and our responsibility to protect the lives of the men and women in uniform.
The safeguarding of some information specific to the mission in Afghanistan is fundamental to the safety of all Canadians working in Afghanistan and the coalition of personnel, including the Afghans with whom we work, side by side, every day.
In August we witnessed the relief in place between joint Task Force 0107, which is what we call it, and that's comprised mainly of the battle group 3 RCR, Royal Canadian Regiment, from Petawawa, and Task Force 0307, which is the 3 Van Doo battle group out of Valcartier.
Benefiting from the improving security environment created by the preceding rotations and the continuous efforts by that 3 RCR battle group, the current Joint Task Force Afghanistan, under the leadership of Brigadier General Laroche and the commanding officer of the 3 Van Doo battle group, Lieutenant Colonel Alain Gauthier, has maintained the pressure on ensuring leadership and activities, improving the security in the Mazar-e, Panjwai, and Arghandab districts. Their contribution to the whole of government approach is measured by the Afghan national security force's capacity building successes, resulting in a small demonstration of Afghan National Army self sustainment and a progressively better Afghan National Police. I'll talk more about that later.
A significant improvement in governance is the establishment of a joint district at all levels of government in the Kandahar province, leading to Afghan solutions.
I would caution in these introductory remarks that despite the fact that we are achieving success, Afghans still need our support and presence before they have achieved the required level of self sustainment.
In the next 30 minutes, these are the subjects that I intend to cover, and they are up on the slide.
On February 4, 2007, the United States, under the direction of General Dan McNeil, assumed command of the International Security Assistance Force Headquarters.
An overview of the countries participating in the International Security Assistance Force mission enables us to put international efforts in context.
The International Security Assistance Force is made up of more than 40,000 soldiers from 38 different countries. The 25 Provincial Reconstruction Teams are the main vehicle for reconstruction in Afghanistan. The civil-military elements of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams are an integral part of the international community's commitment to Afghanistan. They assist Afghan authorities with security and stability, governance, the rule of law, human rights, as well as economic and social development.
As you can see on the slide, Afghanistan is divided into five sectors including the Kabul Regional Command Centre. There are some 4,800 soldiers in the Kabul region.
Regional Command South is British-led and has some 11,600 soldiers, including four Provincial Reconstruction Teams. Regional Command West is Italian-led and has some 2,500 soldiers, including four Provincial Reconstruction Teams. Regional Command North is German-led and has some 3,300 soldiers, including five Provincial Reconstruction Teams. Lastly, Regional Command East is U.S.-led and has some 13,900 soldiers, including 12 Provincial Reconstruction Teams.
Canada and Afghanistan, as well as our international allies are signatories of the Afghanistan Compact, an integrated plan outlining the objectives set for the next five years. The benchmarks enable us to measure our progress in meeting these objectives. The goals contained in the document will contribute to stability and peace in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan Compact will remain in force until the end of 2011.
In Regional Command South, the main effort is the provision of security in that region by disrupting the insurgents and thus setting the conditions for further development, particularly in Kandahar City and the Kandahar Afghan development zone. This slide shows you Regional Command South and it depicts the lead nation in each of those provinces. In the top left-hand corner, Task Force Uruzgan is led by the Netherlands. Their main effort is to maintain security in the areas of Task Force Dihrawud and Tirin Kot. In the top right corner, Task Force Zabul is led by the Romanians. Their main effort is focused on security operations along Highway 1 and the conduct of Afghan development zone security and disrupting operations in the Mizan district. In the bottom left corner, Task Force Helmand is led by the United Kingdom. Their concentration of effort is centred on the Afghan development zone of Lashkar Gah and the area south of Highway 1 to provide security and allow reconstruction and development projects to continue. The task force also maintains security of the Kajaki Dam near Sangin in the north. And in the bottom right corner, Task Force Kandahar is led by the Canadian Forces under the leadership of Brigadier General Laroche, who I mentioned earlier. Our main effort is security, governance, and development in the Panjwai-Zhari area of operations, to continue setting those conditions for success for the Afghan development zone.
Operations are also ongoing near the border region of Spin Buldak--Spin Buldak is right on the border with Pakistan--in an effort to set the conditions for an expansion of that Afghan development zone to the east.
Our mission in Afghanistan involves conducting military operations in the operational zone assigned to us with a view to helping the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to establish and provide a safe environment with the full support of the Afghan National Security Forces, in order to increase the authority and influence of the government, thus promoting the development of Afghanistan and regional stability.
During the operations conducted by the International Security Assistance Force and the Afghan National Security Forces, the insurgents have suffered a season of significant tactical reverses, with considerable losses among their commanders and main operational leaders. The insurgents' main target in Afghanistan is Regional Command South, and to a lesser extent, Regional Command East and Regional Command West. During the summer and the fall, the insurgents turned once again to roadside bombs and kidnapping. The suicide bomb attempt in Kabul last October clearly illustrates the tactics they are prepared to use.
While the Taliban suffered significant losses, the insurgents continued to put up resistance in many regions. In Regional Command South, the insurrection continues to target mainly Helmand and Kandahar provinces. In Orozgân province, the insurgents have stepped up their efforts to settle in before winter. In Helmand province, following a break in operations at the start of the summer, the Taliban have generally been on the defensive and a significant number of Taliban have died during ISAF operations, which thwarted insurgent attempts at regenerating their numbers. Combat alongside the International Security Assistance Force has for the most part been reactive, but well organized and coordinated.
Civilian convoys, the Afghan National Police Corps and representatives of the Afghan government have been frequent targets, since the Taliban consider them easy targets to hit. A Taliban effort to encircle Kandahar City was halted by a Joint Task Force Afghanistan swift operation, as we saw some two weeks ago in the Arghandab region.
The deployment of our current rotation of troops in Afghanistan, as I said earlier, is based on the 3 Van Doo battle group out of Valcartier. It commenced in mid-July and was completed by the end of August.
As with previous rotations, this group of soldiers and this rotation was accomplished with minimal disruption of our operations. The air bridge was conducted with a combination of military airbuses and contracted aircraft from Canada into theatre. We used 24 flights--13 military, using our airbuses, and 11 contracted flights.
In the first week of August, the Joint Task Force Afghanistan change of command took place, and General Tim Grant, who we saw in the media mostly through the spring, relinquished his command to Brigadier General Guy Laroche.
While success in Afghanistan can be measured only over a long period, the success of last month's operations increased the stability and security throughout the Zhari and Panjwai areas, resulting in good progression of the Government of Canada's governance and development objectives.
Over the last month, Joint Task Force Afghanistan continued with the overarching operation Garrandy Zmaray, which means “Iron Lion”. And if you can pronounce those names better than I can, you're better than me.
Operation Iron Lion was to extend the presence of the security forces in the Zhari and Panjwai regions.
Building on the previous successes of its joint Afghan National Police-Afghan National Army and ISAF operations, the joint task force conducted successive high-level joint operations such as Sadiq Sarbaaz, “Honest Soldier”, and Reshteya Adalaat, “Truth and Justice”, which resulted in a disruption in the freedom of movement of the insurgents and a reduction of the command and control of the insurgent leadership, which forced them to revert to small-group and IED tactics.
The Afghan National Police are now deployed across the regions in strongly built police substations, an absolute first. Through the police operational mentor and liaison team initiative, the Afghan National Police have become more effective in policing. More importantly, they can now survive under the constant pressure of the insurgents.
Furthermore, we continually improve the safety of our personnel and the Afghanis through the operationalization of the expedient route-opening capability, which has the nickname of “EROC”. I'll talk a little bit more about that later. The operation is currently being employed with great effectiveness to clear the Zhari and Panjwai road networks.
The effects of this new equipment complement our continued and effective focused operations against the IED leadership and cells. These positive results have translated into a favourable impact on future governance and development efforts in the Zhari-Panjwai region.
We currently have operational mentor and liaison teams working with three infantry “kandaks”, which are each the equivalent size of one of our battalions. When General Howard was here last you will recall that we had only one kandak that we were working with at the time, so this has shown tremendous progress in this space.
We also have a combat service support kandak and a brigade headquarters. In fact, Canada has had a direct impact on the training and development of the growth of a professional and credible Afghan National Army that is now more than 35,000 strong. At any one time we are training and mentoring 2,000 soldiers through our operational mentor and liaison teams.
You're probably all aware of the recent operation that was in the news over the last couple of weeks, Operation Intizaar Zmaray, which took place in the Arghandab district. At the request of the Afghan authorities, Joint Task Force Afghanistan and the Afghan national security forces, which are a complement of the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police, conducted coordinated operations in the Arghandab district in order to maintain a safe and secure environment for the local population there.
That operation will continue until such time as security is reinforced in the area, the insurgent activities in the district are contained, and local Afghan authorities can manage the security situation on their own.
While we still need to maintain our focus on the Afghan national security forces' capacity building, Operation Intizaar Zmaray represents the first operation in the Canadian area of responsibility where an Afghan National Army kandak and the Afghan National Police conducted land operations independently under the mentoring of our Canadian soldiers and with the support of coalition troops.
That kandak commander led his troops into combat in a remarkable manner and with great success. The Afghan National Police also achieved their assigned objectives. A major achievement is the level of responsiveness of the Afghan Security Forces, who launched their attacks with very limited time to plan and prepare.
This tactical success is a clear indication that our present model for Afghan National Security Forces' capacity building is meeting our objectives for [Editor's Note: Inaudible] autonomous Afghan force. Recognizing that we must train a larger number of troops and increase the operational self-sufficiency of the ANA and the ANP, these results clearly show a progression that highlights the efforts we have invested in the operational mentoring and liaison teams, as well as the ongoing supervision of operations.
We acknowledge that the Afghan Security Force is moving slowly towards self-sufficiency and continues to require our presence to increase stability and security in Kandahar province.
In our whole of government approach, we build on the security improvements to increase the governance and development. We've said before that without security, those other two critical pillars can't work. While we are starting to benefit from our Afghan national security force capacity-building efforts, the Joint Task Force Afghanistan and their partners ensure we maximize the opportunities and initiatives to provide Afghan solutions, not only to security but also in the areas of governance and development challenges. Joint Task Force Afghanistan maintains its focus on improving joint planning and execution as well as inter-agency coordination. The focus has a direct impact on governance.
Last week, media coverage from imbedded reporters highlighted the impact of the joint district coordination centre initiative. Those joint district coordination centres are another way to ensure a permanent presence of Afghan national security forces and Joint Task Force Afghanistan personnel to reinforce the Government of Afghanistan's influence within the districts, as well as enhancing the security force's interoperability.
At the provincial and regional levels, the creation of joint regional coordination centres and a joint provincial coordination centre facilitates inter-agency coordination and efficient passage of information. Three joint district coordination centre facilities are being established in Zhari, Panjwai, and Spin Buldak, and a fourth one will be ready to support future expansion. The joint district coordination centres are meant to act as a 24/7 operations centre and include representation from all the stakeholder agencies involved in maintaining security in their districts.
Joint Task Force Afghanistan will set the conditions for the establishment of a weekly coordination meeting for all Afghan national security force representatives, district leaders, and our own joint task force people. Members will convene to discuss security issues and take the actions that are required. The immediate results are Afghan solutions that not only assist in the establishment of a secure environment, but are conducive to development, improvement of their daily life, and the achievement of a self-sufficient society.
This joint approach will help develop a network that will enable local leaders and commanders of the Afghan National Security Forces to take control over security within their districts and to build a safer environment for women, children, and the elderly in their part of the country. This presence 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is key to providing security in Afghanistan and, consequently, reconstruction, development and good government.
Recognizing that the Afghan National Army, and especially the Afghan National Police, require more time and effort to reach an adequate self-sustainment level, the whole of government approach has already produced excellent results in security governance and development. The Afghan national security forces' capacity-building combined with the joint coordination centre approaches provide the foundation for an Afghan solution.
There are three great examples of signs of progress. The first is a trade show sponsored by the Kandahar provincial reconstruction team. This fair exhibited hand-made products in Kandahar city, with 27 stalls representing more than 3,800 locally produced items. There were more than 3,000 visitors, some of whom were international patrons. They spent more than 500,000 afghani, or $10,000 U.S.--or about $10,100 Canadian, since we're back in that space--during the course of the five-day exhibit.
The fair demonstrated the economic potential of small craftsmen in the Kandahar province. It promoted the local Pashtun culture, and provided a forum for future trade and cooperation.
In September the minister of rural reconstruction and development announced 69 new contracts worth $4.2 million for development projects in the southern provinces. This brings the total number of contracted projects to 480 this year in Regional Command South.
The contracted projects are designed to significantly improve the quality of life in southern Afghanistan, and will include construction of new roads, water canals, schools, clinics, culverts, mosques, retaining walls, and drinking-water wells--all the things we take for granted here in our own country.
With the implementation of these new projects, more than 222,000 labour days will be created, benefiting more than 200,000 villagers. The funding of these projects comes from USAID, CIDA, the Department for International Development, and the Dutch and Belgian governments.
In the picture you can see a causeway that is under construction today.
From the development perspective, efforts are clearly measurable in the Arghandab region.
That's the area we were in just this past week.
Joint Task Force Afghanistan is currently building a causeway over the Arghandab River to improve travel between two major cities for security and economic development reasons. This causeway project will currently provide three months of work for 50 Afghans.
This bridge is a huge sign to the locals that we mean what we're saying. There's a huge community on both sides. It connects Kandahar City to Highway 1, and it's going to hugely enable local Afghans over the coming months and years. If things go well, it should be done before Christmas. We are hopeful.
I will provide to the committee a list of projects and governance and all sorts of things that have been completed. They're too numerous for me to cover, but I will provide that to the committee afterwards, and you can have that as a bit of a fact sheet on some of the progress we have seen over the last months.
We tried to capture on this next slide the three lines of operations: governance, development, and security. On the right-hand side are the impacts. As I said before, our mission in Afghanistan is to conduct whole of government, discreet yet synchronized operations across the full spectrum of conflict to support Canada's objective of supporting the Government of Afghanistan's effort to create a secure, democratic, and self-sustaining nation state, which is obviously where we want to go.
In the area of governance, pay equity in the Afghan national security forces is an area in which we have shown improvement. Government of Afghanistan officials are engaged to establish a visit program from Kabul to all the districts. Their provincial bureaucracy is getting better. The outreach program is a part of all our operations.
The district infrastructure is improving across the whole region. The joint district coordination centres, police headquarters, and district centres are being built and improved. There's an Afghan plan, which we are assisting to implement, that rationalizes checkpoints and police substations. Some of those checkpoints used to be Taliban. We've now put them to rest, and the police are there in force. There's increased coordination between Pakistani and Afghani customs along their border.
In the area of development, for basic human needs, there's a focus on health, education, and mine clearance. There is short-term employment via the cash-for-work projects. The priorities are expressed by communities through their community development councils and district governors. There are the roads and bridges we've built and this causeway, which I just mentioned a few moments ago.
Sustainable employment and rural infrastructure are moving. This is under long-term planning. We call it electrification. They obviously want to bring something that we take for granted, electric lines that will bring power to every one of those communities and that will stay on for more than a few hours a day.
In the area of security, as I already mentioned, we have the two new kandaks that have been enabled in the Zhari-Panjwai. The first of the 205 Brigade is approaching their initial capability. The Afghan national security forces have freedom of movement. The Afghan National Police are becoming more credible every day. They're vetted, they're trained, they're mentored, they're monitored, and as of last week, they're also paid.
We have a combined quick-reaction force and a combined operations centre, and we conduct combined operations with the Afghans. Coalition oversight is maintained throughout.
Finally, I want to cover three operational enhancements that are having a huge effect on the ground. I know that the minister announced the EROC, the expedient route-opening capability. They're on the ground, they're operating, and we're seeing the effect on those road networks each and every day. The full system, which is multiples of the three vehicles you see up there, will be in shortly, in the new year. They are having an effect.
We've taken delivery of two of our C-17s. On the second day after the delivery of the first one, it did a humanitarian mission into Jamaica. Two days later it was flying into theatre. They've conducted six rotations of flights into theatre, and they're on a two-week cycle as part of our air bridge. The back of that plane can carry an awful lot of stuff. There are a lot of things we had not been able to either rotate in or rotate out, and this has been a huge enabler and has taken some of the stress off our Herc fleet in a big way.
Also in the news is the delivery of the Leopard C2s. There's a troop on the ground operating today. As a matter of fact, they've been operating for close to a month. The other Leopards are being flown into the theatre at about one a day, and by the end of the month, the full squadron will be in place.
And on that, ladies and gentlemen, I'd be happy to take any questions you have.
