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Afghan soldiers are selling their weapons and vehicles to the Taliban, sharing intelligence with them and signing covert ceasefires as they pre-pare for NATO forces to with-draw, according to a classified military report.
Despite billions of dollars spent by western allies on training and equipping Afghanistan's security forces, they are ceding territory without a fight or even joining forces with the insurgents in some cases.
The report is based on the interrogation of thousands of captured Taliban. It makes depressing reading for coalition forces more than a decade after the start of the conflict.
According to the NATO study, Taliban fighters believe they have overcome the American troop surge, that their return to power is "inevitable" and that they can easily sub-due President Hamid Karzai's forces once the Afghan army and police take charge of security in 2014.
It also says that the Pakistani government remains "intimately involved" with the insurgent group, despite U.S. efforts to threaten or cajole it to cut off support. Taliban prisoners claim that Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency is "thoroughly aware of Taliban activities and the whereabouts of all senior Taliban personnel."
In a further setback Wednesday, the Afghan Taliban said that no peace negotiation process had been agreed with the international community, "particularly the Americans."
Taliban spokesman Zabihul-lah Mujahid said in a statement that confidence-building measures must be completed before any negotiations, putting pres-sure on Washington to meet demands for the release of five Taliban in U.S. custody.
The portrait of a confident Taliban insurgency was com-piled from more than 4,000 insurgent prisoners held during 2011, as Barack Obama's surge of troops was at its height. It was drawn up by American military officers at Bagram airfield.
The report, called State of the Taliban, found there had been growing interest over the past 12 months from members of Karzai's government in cooperating with, or even joining their opponents. It also disclosed growing numbers of reports of "outright coordination, equipment transfers, intelligence sharing or occasionally even the incorporation of Afghan security forces in Taliban operations."
Afghan police and soldiers had informal ceasefires or non-aggression pacts with insurgents in some areas as they prepared for a future after NATO leaves. These deals often included pledges from the security forces that they would support the Taliban in the long term.
"The Taliban are absolutely confident in their ability to sub-due Afghan security forces," the report said.
Training the Afghan police and army to take over security in Afghanistan is the foundation of NATO's strategy to withdraw combat troops by the end of 2014. But detainees had claimed the Afghan security forces were selling or giving away weapons donated by the West.
A bazaar in Miranshah, cap-ital of North Waziristan in Pakistan's tribal region, was "increasingly inundated with rifles, pistols and heavy weapons which have been sold by Afghan security forces," the report said. "The vehicles and weapons were once only acquired on the battlefield. They are now regularly sold or donated by the Afghan security forces."
Pictures of Taliban fighters driving in Afghan army vehicles or posing with their weapons had become common trophies. Although Taliban prisoners were weary of war, the report found that morale remained high in the insurgency.
"Detainees have become more confident not only in their potential to win, but the virtue of their cause," it said.
Fighters believed there was little hope of a negotiated settlement and that Karzai and his northern Afghan allies were prolonging the conflict to collect foreign aid and subdue the Pashtun tribes of the south.
Following the leak of the study, NATO headquarters in Kabul insisted it was not an analysis of the state of the military campaign. It said that while it "may provide some level of representative sampling of Taliban opinions and ideals," it should "not be used as any interpretation of campaign progress." Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan's foreign minister, dismissed the claims as "old wine in an even older bottle" during a visit to Kabul. "I can disregard this as potentially a strategic leak," she said.
Brig.-Gen. Carsten Jacobsen, spokesman for the coalition, said: "Obviously they are telling us what their idea is about the goings on of their campaign. It is what they either do believe or what they want us to believe.
"The insurgency is clearly on the back foot. We have been pressurizing them over the summer, we have taken vast amounts of land out of their hands and we have detained a high number of militants." William Patey, the British Ambassador to Kabul, wrote on his Twitter feed Wednesday that "if elements of the Taliban think that in 2015 they can take control of Afghanistan they will be in for a shock."
He did not say whether his comments were in response to the leaked NATO document.
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Read more: Afghan soldiers secretly aiding, selling weapons to Taliban: report
Despite billions of dollars spent by western allies on training and equipping Afghanistan's security forces, they are ceding territory without a fight or even joining forces with the insurgents in some cases.
The report is based on the interrogation of thousands of captured Taliban. It makes depressing reading for coalition forces more than a decade after the start of the conflict.
According to the NATO study, Taliban fighters believe they have overcome the American troop surge, that their return to power is "inevitable" and that they can easily sub-due President Hamid Karzai's forces once the Afghan army and police take charge of security in 2014.
It also says that the Pakistani government remains "intimately involved" with the insurgent group, despite U.S. efforts to threaten or cajole it to cut off support. Taliban prisoners claim that Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency is "thoroughly aware of Taliban activities and the whereabouts of all senior Taliban personnel."
In a further setback Wednesday, the Afghan Taliban said that no peace negotiation process had been agreed with the international community, "particularly the Americans."
Taliban spokesman Zabihul-lah Mujahid said in a statement that confidence-building measures must be completed before any negotiations, putting pres-sure on Washington to meet demands for the release of five Taliban in U.S. custody.
The portrait of a confident Taliban insurgency was com-piled from more than 4,000 insurgent prisoners held during 2011, as Barack Obama's surge of troops was at its height. It was drawn up by American military officers at Bagram airfield.
The report, called State of the Taliban, found there had been growing interest over the past 12 months from members of Karzai's government in cooperating with, or even joining their opponents. It also disclosed growing numbers of reports of "outright coordination, equipment transfers, intelligence sharing or occasionally even the incorporation of Afghan security forces in Taliban operations."
Afghan police and soldiers had informal ceasefires or non-aggression pacts with insurgents in some areas as they prepared for a future after NATO leaves. These deals often included pledges from the security forces that they would support the Taliban in the long term.
"The Taliban are absolutely confident in their ability to sub-due Afghan security forces," the report said.
Training the Afghan police and army to take over security in Afghanistan is the foundation of NATO's strategy to withdraw combat troops by the end of 2014. But detainees had claimed the Afghan security forces were selling or giving away weapons donated by the West.
A bazaar in Miranshah, cap-ital of North Waziristan in Pakistan's tribal region, was "increasingly inundated with rifles, pistols and heavy weapons which have been sold by Afghan security forces," the report said. "The vehicles and weapons were once only acquired on the battlefield. They are now regularly sold or donated by the Afghan security forces."
Pictures of Taliban fighters driving in Afghan army vehicles or posing with their weapons had become common trophies. Although Taliban prisoners were weary of war, the report found that morale remained high in the insurgency.
"Detainees have become more confident not only in their potential to win, but the virtue of their cause," it said.
Fighters believed there was little hope of a negotiated settlement and that Karzai and his northern Afghan allies were prolonging the conflict to collect foreign aid and subdue the Pashtun tribes of the south.
Following the leak of the study, NATO headquarters in Kabul insisted it was not an analysis of the state of the military campaign. It said that while it "may provide some level of representative sampling of Taliban opinions and ideals," it should "not be used as any interpretation of campaign progress." Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan's foreign minister, dismissed the claims as "old wine in an even older bottle" during a visit to Kabul. "I can disregard this as potentially a strategic leak," she said.
Brig.-Gen. Carsten Jacobsen, spokesman for the coalition, said: "Obviously they are telling us what their idea is about the goings on of their campaign. It is what they either do believe or what they want us to believe.
"The insurgency is clearly on the back foot. We have been pressurizing them over the summer, we have taken vast amounts of land out of their hands and we have detained a high number of militants." William Patey, the British Ambassador to Kabul, wrote on his Twitter feed Wednesday that "if elements of the Taliban think that in 2015 they can take control of Afghanistan they will be in for a shock."
He did not say whether his comments were in response to the leaked NATO document.
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Read more: Afghan soldiers secretly aiding, selling weapons to Taliban: report
