AMMAN — Special forces are an ideal force to conduct United Nations peacekeeping missions because they “are most suited to fight low-intensity conflict in unconventional environments,” Maj. Gen. Tahir Mahmood, commander of Pakistan’s Special Services Group, told the audience at the Middle East Special Operations Commanders Conference here March 31.

Among the duties that special forces can assume in peacekeeping, peacemaking or peace enforcement missions are training, security, quick-reaction, counterterrorist, anti-terrorist, counterguerrilla warfare and clandestine roles, Tahir said.

Special forces can train other elements of a U.N. force before and after that force’s deployment into the area of operations, but they can also train host country forces and “locals against guerrillas,” he said.

Potential tasks included within the security role are the protection of high officials and dignitaries, the guarding of sensitive installations, escorting visiting delegations, securing ceremonies and other events and the escorting of U.N. convoys, Tahir said.

The general outlined, with the help of PowerPoint slides, a series of tactics and techniques that special forces could use in the other roles. His list ranged from sniping and hostage-rescue actions to observation and reporting and more exotic-sounding techniques such as “the rabbit hunt” and “direct snap action.”

When discussing the clandestine role, he noted that “special forces are capable of conducting operations in disguise.”

“In the present situations, carefully structured, equipped and trained special forces provide the most reliable means to an organization like the United Nations for the application of military force to achieve U.N. peace objectives,” Tahir said.

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