pakistani342
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Highway 1 is a critical road in Afghanistan (it is a circular road that links several critical cities).
USA Today has an article here about the challenges in securing it and the opinions of local Afghans. It also talk about ANSF collusion with the enemy. I guess long live the ANSF.
excerpts below:
...
A semi-official militia called the Afghan Public Protection Force maintains security for the convoys. But the militia can't, or won't, confront attackers who regularly target the trucks as they pass through the villages of Salaar and Haft Asyab.
Both areas are under the protection of Afghan police, soldiers and Gallahue's troops. The insurgents divert the trucks, steal their fuel and set them ablaze. Columns of smoke visible for miles are a usual sight, done to signal to residents that the Afghan National Security Forces cannot protect them.
"There is benefit to them from trucks burning on Highway 1," says Gallahue. "It is a symbol of insecurity."
...
Maj. Rob Howard arrived in May to help turn things around with a new Afghan battalion leader, Col. Mulinkadin, who he saw as effective and aggressive. Under Mulinkadin (many Afghans go by one name), the Afghan army spread into the villages. Highway attacks went down. Mulinkadin's Afghan superiors relieved him of duty, and things got worse again.
"I was angry because there's been a lot of good work out here," Howard says. "The week after Mulinkadin left, we had back-to-back convoys, both of them hit pretty hard, combined total of 44 trucks burned, in about 10 days."
Howard suspects there's some collusion between the Taliban and members of the Afghan police force posted in the region, given the attacks are so close to the police bases.
"Now do I know for a fact? Not really," he says. "But if it's time and time and time again there's either incompetency or there's collusion."
...
It's not just Taliban marauding over the highway. The black market trade in stolen fuel is an inducement to thieves as well.
Howard also suspects that some of the tanker thefts involve corrupt Afghan forces.
Wardak says Afghan forces need to patrol more actively and fight more responsibly.
"They don't protect the road, they don't protect the villages, the civilians," she adds.
...
Capt. Padshah, a 32-year police veteran and the commander of the Afghan National Civil Order Police in Haft Asyab, isn't optimistic about the future here when Afghans are slated to take over security from the Americans.
"We think it's going to get worse," he says. "There's going be more firefights, there's gonna be more enemy, we are gonna lose a lot of people."
USA Today has an article here about the challenges in securing it and the opinions of local Afghans. It also talk about ANSF collusion with the enemy. I guess long live the ANSF.
excerpts below:
...
A semi-official militia called the Afghan Public Protection Force maintains security for the convoys. But the militia can't, or won't, confront attackers who regularly target the trucks as they pass through the villages of Salaar and Haft Asyab.
Both areas are under the protection of Afghan police, soldiers and Gallahue's troops. The insurgents divert the trucks, steal their fuel and set them ablaze. Columns of smoke visible for miles are a usual sight, done to signal to residents that the Afghan National Security Forces cannot protect them.
"There is benefit to them from trucks burning on Highway 1," says Gallahue. "It is a symbol of insecurity."
...
Maj. Rob Howard arrived in May to help turn things around with a new Afghan battalion leader, Col. Mulinkadin, who he saw as effective and aggressive. Under Mulinkadin (many Afghans go by one name), the Afghan army spread into the villages. Highway attacks went down. Mulinkadin's Afghan superiors relieved him of duty, and things got worse again.
"I was angry because there's been a lot of good work out here," Howard says. "The week after Mulinkadin left, we had back-to-back convoys, both of them hit pretty hard, combined total of 44 trucks burned, in about 10 days."
Howard suspects there's some collusion between the Taliban and members of the Afghan police force posted in the region, given the attacks are so close to the police bases.
"Now do I know for a fact? Not really," he says. "But if it's time and time and time again there's either incompetency or there's collusion."
...
It's not just Taliban marauding over the highway. The black market trade in stolen fuel is an inducement to thieves as well.
Howard also suspects that some of the tanker thefts involve corrupt Afghan forces.
Wardak says Afghan forces need to patrol more actively and fight more responsibly.
"They don't protect the road, they don't protect the villages, the civilians," she adds.
...
Capt. Padshah, a 32-year police veteran and the commander of the Afghan National Civil Order Police in Haft Asyab, isn't optimistic about the future here when Afghans are slated to take over security from the Americans.
"We think it's going to get worse," he says. "There's going be more firefights, there's gonna be more enemy, we are gonna lose a lot of people."
