Afghanistan Military & News

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Brigadier
Families plead for Pakistanis 'missing' in Afghanistan....

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At least 24 Pakistanis have gone missing since last year after being allegedly picked up by foreign and local security forces in Afghan capital Kabul, their families in Pakistani city of Peshawar claimed on Monday.

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Brigadier
Suicide bomber kills 26 in Kabul attack...

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"A suicide bomber on Wednesday killed at least 26 people, many of them teenagers, in front of Kabul University, officials said, as Afghans took to the streets to celebrate the Persian new year holiday."


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TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Afghan A-29 pilots drop laser-guided bomb in combat
By:
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  8 hours ago
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in combat on a Taliban compound in
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, Afghanistan, on March 22.

The pilots dispatched a GBU-58 — a 250-pound laser-guided bomb — from an
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out of
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’s Kandahar detachment. The Afghan Air Force has 12 A-29s, made by Sierra Nevada Corp. and Embraer, but will own a total of 25 by 2019.

While the pilots had both guided and unguided bombs, they opted for the laser-guided munitions to avoid collateral damage, given the target’s close proximity to civilians, according to a
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from Resolute Support Headquarters.

“The AAF has demonstrated again and again that their pilots, using the A-29 and the skills they have learned from our advisors and perfected through combat experience, that they can drop non-precision weapons within 10 meters of their targets,” said Brig Gen. Phillip Stewart, Train Advise, Assist Command—Air chief. “There are certain targets that require laser guided bombs and the AAF has shown it can accomplish that task now as well.”



Resolute Support reported that the bomb resulted in a direct hit along the route of a major Afghan National Army clearing operation.

The Afghan pilots gained their own airstrike capability more than two years ago, “first with the
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in August 2015, followed by the A-29 Super Tucano in April 2016,” according to Resolute Support. Afghan pilots now fly “around 100 sorties each day, and around 10 percent are strikes.”

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An Afghan pilot walks near a military helicopter in Kunar province on Feb. 24, 2014. (Shah Marai/AFP)
In 2001, Afghanistan’s Air Force was practically nonexistent, and NATO has spent billions of dollars to raise, train and equip the service.

Nurturing these capabilities is one of the keys to success in the country, according to Air Force Brig. Gen. Lance Bunch, director of future operations for Resolute Support.

“Key pieces that you're seeing is that the Afghan Air Force itself, one of the more lethal organizations they have, and one that we're looking to triple in size by 2023, is conducting significantly more air operations in direct support of the [Afghan National Defense Security Forces] on the battlefield, to the tune of 500 more sorties this year than they did the year before,” Bunch said at a December 2017 news conference.

The role that Resolute Support advisers played in this operation wasn’t made immediately clear. Regardless, U.S. forces in the country held up the accomplishment as proof of a growing Afghan independence.

“The
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have learned their trade during combat and our advisors have expanded their skills in a deliberate step by step approach increasing the Afghan Air Force capability, and this recent laser guided bomb strike is an example of the success of the AAF and TAAC-Air’s efforts,” Stewart said. “The Afghan pilots do their jobs very well and they can do it in any part of the country.”

Air warfare reporter Valerie Insinna, of Defense News, contributed to this report.
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Brigadier
Afghan Military Strike Kills at Least 70 at Mosque.....

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KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan military helicopters bombed a religious gathering in the northern province of Kunduz on Monday, killing at least 70 people and wounding 30 others, according to a local official in the area.

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TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
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BY
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| March 31, 2018 | [email protected] |
The DoD Inspector General (IG) revealed in a
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that military authorities could not confirm whether the $3.1 billion in funding for the Afghan government fulfilled its intended purposes. According to the report, insufficient US oversight and Afghan capability led to mismanagement and an overall lack of assurance as to exactly where DoD funds ended up.

The funding provided by Combined Security Transition Command–Afghanistan (CSTC-A) to the Afghan Ministry of Defense (MoD) and Ministry of Interior (MoI) from 2014 through 2017 was meant to “increase ANDSF effectiveness and capabilities so the ANDSF can become more professional and increasingly self-sustaining.” Specifically, the $3.1 billion supported improvement of Afghan ministerial capacities. This includes training for Afghan personnel to better track budgeting and allocation for supplies like ammunition, vehicles, and fuel needed to support ANDSF combat efforts around the country.

The goal of the CSTC-A funds was to develop an independent and self-sufficient Afghan ministerial sector capable of supporting ANDSF forces battling a resurgent Taliban insurgency. Without an established complex to supply ammunition, vehicles, and necessary supplies, ANDSF forces could be cut off from vital resources needed to take and hold territory. The DoD IG warned that the MoD and MoI are not reaching this level of self-sufficiency, summarizing that they lack effective inventory and budgeting capabilities, can’t properly maintain equipment, and are still reliant on US assistance.

For example, the DoD simply doesn’t know where some of the vehicles it supplied to the ANDSF ended up. The DoD IG found that “since 2005, CSTC-A officials obtained approximately 95,000 vehicles for the ANDSF; however, CSTC-A officials did not have an accurate inventory of the vehicles.” Some likely landed in
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, while others wound up back on base for repairs after being “reported as destroyed in battle.”

Vehicles also lacked a reliable workforce of mechanics to service them when they broke down. The IG noted that “officials did not provide sufficient training to the Afghan National Police to independently maintain its fleet of vehicles.” This shortfall led to DoD spending “approximately $21 million to replace engines and transmissions on vehicles” that Afghans could have otherwise fixed if properly trained to provide the needed maintenance for operational upkeep.

Shortfalls noted by the DoD IG show that Afghan forces are still heavily reliant on US and partner participation and guidance despite US and coalition efforts to build ANDSF capabilities so that the force can become self-reliant and
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. In one case the report notes that, “CSTC-A officials performed the ministerial functions related to fuel management, [while] MoD officials did not develop the skills to perform these duties.” Even while directly assisting, “CSTC-A officials do not have reasonable assurance that the fuel purchased was used for its intended purposes.”

Issues consistently plaguing US development of Afghan defense capacities

Two key problems persist across many US efforts to build up Afghan government and military capabilities. First, US and coalition partners can’t find proper or reliable training mechanisms to effectively teach Afghans the skills they need for self-reliance. Combat and policing training has been significantly misguided at times, and the Army is just now developing new
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to the development of foreign forces, with the ANDSF serving as a worthy first test. In this vein, the DoD IG report notes poor training of ministerial skills to Afghans as a primary shortfall of CSTC-A’s fund management.

Second, even when US and coalition forces find proper training resources and teachers, they’re faced with an Afghan population that still struggles with rampant illiteracy rates and limited computer skills. This makes for a small talent pool and a prolonged learning curve on new systems and skills. This problem is particularly exacerbated when US efforts or funding hit the local operational level.

The recurrent difficulties described in the DoD IG’s report can also be found in numerous
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when tracking ANDSF force strength and development.

You can read the
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.

Phil Hegseth is a social and digital media specialist at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a contributor to FDD’s Long War Journal.
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Dizasta1

Senior Member
Moscow Conference: Hamid Karzai makes revelations about Daesh and US links in Afghanistan

MOSCOW - Speaking at the 7th Moscow Conference on International Security on Wednesday, Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said: “The underlying strategic assumption was that the US and its allies would be able to handle the problem and succeed and that they were sincere in their mission. That hope has been dashed to the ground.”

He said: “Seventeen years on, Afghanistan is neither peaceful nor safe. More terrorist groups have sprung up with clear signs that organized support is nurturing there.

Otherwise, Daesh would have not emerged in our country. It has been noted that this group, Daesh, has been supplied and strengthened during the full-scale military and intelligence presence of the United States and NATO in the name of the war on terrorism in my country Afghanistan.”

However, the CEO’s spokesman Jawed Faisal dismissed these claims and said: “We have fought against all (insurgent) groups including Daesh, Taliban and Haqqani (network). We eliminated Daesh’s leadership in Afghanistan, we cleared the areas in which they (Daesh fighters) were operating.” *Afghan government on Thursday rejected claims by former president Hamid Karzai that insurgent groups, especially Daesh, are being bolstered by the presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan.*

The CEO’s Office said any doubt or suspicion in the fight against Daesh “is not correct” and that all insurgent groups have been and are still being targeted in the fight against terror by the Afghan government, the United States and NATO.

Senior military officials from countries in the region, including Pakistan and Iran, attended the Moscow Conference.

“Mr Karzai has a cold relation with the United States; therefore, at every ceremony, he tries to talk in a way to show that Americans are oppressing Afghanistan and that they are betraying the people of Afghanistan,” Ghulam Farooq Majroh, an MP, told TOLOnews.

This is not the first time that the former president has criticized the US’s mission in Afghanistan.

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TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Taliban overruns Afghan district, kills governor
BY BILL ROGGIO | April 12, 2018 | [email protected] | @billroggio
The Taliban overran the district of Khwaja Omari and killed at least eight people, including the district governor, earlier today. Seven policemen were also killed in the attack. Khwaja Omari was considered to have been one of the more secure districts in Ghazni province.

The attack and death of Ali Shams Dost, the district governor, and seven policemen was confirmed by the Ghazni provincial police, according to TOLONews. Nine other policemen were wounded during the fighting.

A statement released by the provincial police force said the Taliban launched the raid at 2:00 AM local time. The Taliban routinely launches strikes on district centers and military bases at night. Videos documenting the attacks often show Taliban fighters using night vision devices.

The Taliban torched the governor’s compound before withdrawing its forces. The police claimed that 27 Taliban fighters were killed in retaliatory airstrikes.

The district of Khwaja Omari was previously considered to be one of the more secure areas in Ghazni, which is a hotbed for the Taliban and other foreign jihadist groups such as al Qaeda. Resolute Support listed Khwaja Omari as “Government Influenced,” according to a report issued by the Special Investigator General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. A government influenced district means that the government holds sway and the Taliban presence is minimal.

The fact that the Taliban was able to easily overrun the Khwaja Omari district center indicates that the Taliban presence in the district is far greater than assessed by Resolute Support. FDD’s Long War Journal now assesses the district to be contested.

The security situation in Afghanistan has progressively declined since the US withdrew the bulk of its forces by 2014 and handed over security to Afghan forces. LWJ has assessed that 46 percent of Afghanistan’s 407 districts are controlled (38 districts) or contested (151 districts). [See LWJ report, Mapping Taliban Control in Afghanistan.]
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has a map of Taliban controled regions of Afghanistan.
 

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Brigadier
‘So Many Bodies’: Bomber Kills Dozens Signing Up to Vote in Kabul..

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"A suicide bomber killed at least 57 people on Sunday as they lined up at a government office in Kabul to register to vote, raising new concerns about the potential for violence to undermine Afghanistan’s long-delayed parliamentary elections.

The attacker detonated his explosives as the Afghan authorities distributed national identity cards in the western part of Kabul, the capital, part of a push by the government to get more people to register to vote. Wahidullah Majrooh, a spokesman for the Afghan Health Ministry, said the attack also wounded at least 119 others."

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Brigadier
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declares
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‘world’s largest host of
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’ [
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]



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"As per UNHCR, Pakistan is hosting the largest number of refugees globally, which number more than 1.45 million in the country, and most of them hail from Afghanistan. The report added that Pakistan unconditionally hosted millions of refugees and provided best possible facilities to these affected people of different countries especially Afghan citizens when the war was at its peak."

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