Live Conflict War in Afghanistan

Dalit

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Taliban gain nine more districts in two Afghan provinces

KABUL: The Taliban have taken control of nine districts in two Afghan provinces, as the militants intensify their campaign of violence across the country ahead of the full withdrawal of US troops.

The militants in the north-eastern Badakhshan province forced the security forces to retreat from seven districts alone in the past 24 hours, local councillors Mohammad Zakir Aryan and Mahboob-ul Rahman Talaat said on Saturday.

In the meantime, the Taliban have also captured at least two districts, including Ghorak and Khakrez in southern Kandahar province, according to parliamentarian Khalil Ahmad Mujahid and councillor Nematullah Wafa.

 

Dalit

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You really wonder. How did the US/NATO train ANA soldiers for 20 years? What will happen with the plan to train Afghan soldiers abroad? Isn't it a futile plan?
 

Kaptaan

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How did the US/NATO train ANA soldiers for 20 years?
This is not about training. Most recruits joined just because of dollars with absolute no sense of duty. Training such men will not make a fighting force. Particulary as there is rampant corruption in the senior officers, many of whom are just unifomed warlords.
 

Kaptaan

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You might describe ANA as a mercenery force raised by USA and as the catalyst for that force left it has began to fall apart. This raises a interesting question. Why did Pakistan Army not fall apart the British left in 1947? After all the British had raised what was a mercenery army whose units would form Pakistan Army in 1947.

Of particular interest are units like Frontier Force regiment or Guides Cavalry which were raised by British from mostly Pashtun ethnic groups in 1880s. These units built a sterling record and today are regarded as elite units in Pakistan.

I think the reason is FF or Guides had developed esprit de corps over the century [nearly] of British service. Three or sometimes four generations of familes had served these units creating unit esteem and loyalty. Thus when the British left this simply was mutated into Pakistan Army and those traditions have continued to this day. Also there never was internal civil war to break the esprit de corps of these units.

Another unit that is illustrative of the point I am making is Khyber Rifles whose men again are exclusively recruited from Pakistan Pashtuns and almost exact same pool that ANA is recruited from. Again Khyber Rifles has a long history going back over 150 years when it was raised by British. Over the century British military traditions seeped into the regiments institutional memory including using bagpipes as it's standard call. Again this regiment has a long record of battle honours including before and both World Wars.

As a interesting asides to Turkis members here many of these regiments were deployed by Britain against Ottoman Turks and soon were taken out of the line when for the first time they refused to fight or even changed sides.

The bottom line is it would have taken a century to institutionalize their nation building. You can't just tape over a fractious society even if you spend trillions of dollars.

Khyber Rifles logo which is derived from the border pass between Afgfhanistan and Pakistan.

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A Khyber Rifles sepoy.

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British connection revisited. Princess Diane at Khyber Rifles officers invite.

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Raising insituitional military structures not only takes money but time akin to planting sapling and growing it into a tree. In Pakistan most recruits come from various tribes to these units but after a short spell their loyalty is to the unit and not external factors. In Pakistan this why the army is highly regarded because it ensures peace and is the countries backbone. Otherwise Pakistan would also have caved into a catastrophic internal chaos like Afghanistan, Syria or Libya because the social and ethnic composition is very similiar to Afghanistan.
 

Dalit

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This is not about training. Most recruits joined just because of dollars with absolute no sense of duty. Training such men will not make a fighting force. Particulary as there is rampant corruption in the senior officers, many of whom are just unifomed warlords.

That is exactly my point. The US/NATO presence didn't achieve anything meaningful. It was a charade.
 

Dalit

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Russia warns US about transforming withdrawal from Afghanistan into relocation to Central Asia

The US cannot and should not transform the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan into the relocation of its military facilities to Central Asia, Russian presidential envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said Friday.

"We have already sent such a signal to Washington at various levels, I hope it will be heard," Kabulov told Russian news agency, RIA.

Kabulov called "a dead end" the current confrontation between the Taliban and the Afghan government and urged all sides to establish a coalition government.


As expected, Russia is making it clear to the US that relocating to CAS won't be tolerated. The US is running out of options. Apart from its GCC bases thousands of kilometres away are there any other alternatives?
 

Dalit

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Taliban seize key Kandahar district after fierce fighting​


The Taliban have captured a key district in their former bastion of Kandahar after fierce night-time fighting with Afghan government forces, officials said Sunday, the latest area to be seized since US troops began their final withdrawal.

The insurgents have pressed on with their campaign to capture territory across Afghanistan's rural areas since early May when the US military began the pullout.

The fall of Panjwai district in the southern province of Kandahar comes just two days after US and NATO forces vacated their main Bagram Air Base near Kabul, from where they led operations for two decades against the Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies.

Over the years, the Taliban and Afghan forces have regularly clashed in and around Panjwai, with the insurgents aiming to seize it given its proximity to Kandahar city, the provincial capital.

 

Isa Khan

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What was the point in wasting precious lives, time, money to invade Iraq, Afghanistan if you leave without fully eradicating terrorism and extremism? Taliban's rise will sure make things more precarious again.
 

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