Taliban attack on Faryab. updates

[BHarwana]

These situations are not comparable, at all.

Pakistan Army cleared militants from Pakistani territory, and had complete support of the public in this endeavor, and also had access to ample funds. American drone strikes were also softening resistance to Pakistani Army by assassinating hardcore militants from time-to-time.

Another thing is that Pakistan Army wasn't a master of COIN operations by default. Our military learned from exposure, experience and recorded considerable losses over time. We have lost more troops in this war in comparison to any other in our history.

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NATO is operating in a distant country and constitute a "occupying force" - it doesn't have regional legitimacy. NATO have established an Afghan government and its primary responsibility it to develop Afghan Security Forces - this is a mammoth task (expensive and unrealistic too).

NATO doesn't have substantial presence in Afghanistan either (16000 troops in total) - this strength is not enough to secure Afghanistan. On the other hand, Taliban is a huge force with substantial legitimacy in numerous sectors of the country - they are Afghan locals and they know their country inside out.

NATO have to do something major to turn the tide of war in Afghanistan. Current strategy is not going to work.

Some argue that NATO should abandon Afghanistan to its fate because this country is too fragmented and tribal to reform. Afghanistan finds itself in a perpetual state of civil war, and a foreign entity cannot address its problems.

There is no civil war in Afghanistan. Afghanis are fighting foreign fighters of ISIS.

 

[Path-Finder]

Sssh wait for it. Month or so every thing will be in order. There will be peace in Afghanistan and brotherly relations will extend.

@Path-Finder latest Faryab district governor also killed.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1030118152150151169

Question is, will trump send the troops? This appears to be an opening for the yanks to enter the arena again with force. A lot of things are on stake but we are heading to an ultimate showdown. You can have many Alamo's but their thick walls will be thinly manned.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1030082045136039937

 

[BHarwana]

Question is, will trump send the troops? This appears to be an opening for the yanks to enter the arena again with force. A lot of things are on stake but we are heading to an ultimate showdown. You can have many Alamo's but their thick walls will be thinly manned.

Nah trump is not sending any troops the question is will India help the puppet govt and send troops. Ghani needs Jawans.

 

[LeGenD]

There is no civil war in Afghanistan. Afghanis are fighting foreign fighters of ISIS.

You should read this book: https://www.mylifewiththetaliban.com/My_Life_With_The_Taliban/Home.html

This book is from the former member of Taliban (Mullah Zaeef). Mullah Zaeef still have ties with Taliban, but chose to live in peace.

We are witnessing another chapter of CIVIL WAR in Afghanistan; Taliban versus Afghan government (Afghans killing each other).

And I have pointed out to you time and again that ISIS-K encompass former members of Afghan Taliban, TTP and other organizations operating in Afghanistan. These are locals, just like the others. These factions splintered after the death of Mullah Omar.

 

[Path-Finder]

I get the feeling taliban have got a taste of American rifles no?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1030082045136039937

Nah trump is not sending any troops the question is will India help the puppet govt and send troops. Ghani needs Jawans.

no way, it will have to the yanks who will enter. There is NO way in hell indians are going to send their troops into afghanistan. other NATO nations are sick n tired of that country.

It all boils down to the yanks wanting to keep an outpost or few but it's just not panning out the way they hoped. Taliban don't want to negotiate either because the 2 faced approach they dealt with few years ago.

Stakes have never been higher.

 

[BHarwana]

You should read this book: https://www.mylifewiththetaliban.com/My_Life_With_The_Taliban/Home.html

This book is from the former member of Taliban (Mullah Zaeef). Mullah Zaeef still have ties with Taliban, but chose to live in peace.

We are witnessing another chapter of CIVIL WAR in Afghanistan; Taliban versus Afghan government (Afghans killing each other).

And I have pointed out to you time and again that ISIS-K encompass former members of Afghan Taliban, TTP and other organizations operating in Afghanistan. These are locals, just like the others. These factions splintered after the death of Mullah Omar.

Lol stop reading books my friend read my posts they are better and give more info.

 

[LeGenD]

Lol stop reading books my friend read my posts they are better and give more info.

I read your posts but they are mostly Twitter handles in which anybody can type anything.

Learn from insider sources: https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/the-story-of-iskp-in-jawzjan.571209/

It is open secret that Taliban splintered after death of Mullah Omar. You can verify this on your own, if you want to. You have the skills.

 

[BHarwana]

I read your posts but they are mostly Twitter handles in which anybody can type anything.

Learn from insider sources: https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/the-story-of-iskp-in-jawzjan.571209/

So you mean Taliban are not attacking faryab? And this is all BS? Lol these twitter handles are from reporters in Afghanistan working for different media houses.

 

[LeGenD]

So you mean Taliban are not attacking faryab? And this is all BS? Lol these twitter handles are from reporters in Afghanistan working for different media houses.

No, I didn't say that.

Lot of truth in Twitter handles. However, at the same time, lot of propaganda and narrative there too. Their are even Twitter bots which are programmed to promote narrative of vested parties.

 

[Dark-Destroyer]

will their be peace in Afghanistan in our life time thats the real question

 

[Crystal-Clear]

In some days we'll get the news of additional US troop deployment in Afghanistan

tht mean direct confontration between us and taliban which mean they ( usa) will bleed .
.
.
that is exactly the plan .

 

[BHarwana]

@LeGenD no one has this info till now Haji jang base just over ran by Taliban in Helmand. 35 soldiers killed rest captured.

This is what USA is saying wait for few hours and see what is actual story. Lol

https://twitter.com/x/status/1030100261644247040

No, I didn't say that.

Lot of truth in Twitter handles. However, at the same time, lot of propaganda and narrative there too. Their are even Twitter bots which are programmed to promote narrative of vested parties.

I know what you are saying but most bots are Indian and promote Ghani govt.

 

[GumNaam]

@LeGenD no one has this info till now Haji jang base just over ran by Taliban in Helmand. 35 soldiers killed rest captured.

This is what USA is saying wait for few hours and see what is actual story. Lol

https://twitter.com/x/status/1030100261644247040

sounds familiar...the u.s. made the same claims about south vietnam "winning" against north vietnam but we all know how that turned out. I think the afghani version of the picture below is getting close...

 

[BHarwana]

@LeGenD I am not following one side but both and giving the news when the actual situation is established.

 

[LeGenD]

@LeGenD no one has this info till now Haji jang base just over ran by Taliban in Helmand. 35 soldiers killed rest captured.

This is what USA is saying wait for few hours and see what is actual story. Lol

https://twitter.com/x/status/1030100261644247040

I know what you are saying but most bots are Indian and promote Ghani govt.

Bro,

A lot is happening there, and both sides report their side of story; not wise to jump to conclusion over these matters. Twitter handles portray bits and pieces of events in progress - not the complete picture. It takes a while to piece together these bits of information and construct a rich picture of events on the ground.

Taliban assault on Ghazni flouts Afghan and U.S. hopes for truce, peace talks

KABUL — In recent days, two wars have raged over the Afghan city of Ghazni.

One is a shooting war, in which hundreds of Taliban insurgents overran the eastern city of 270,000, burned buildings, left at least 120 government troops and civilians dead, and sent families fleeing across fields to safety. Afghan security forces, backed by U.S. airstrikes, struggled to flush insurgent fighters out of urban hiding places.

The other is a propaganda war, marked by Taliban claims to have shut down the nearby highway, killed hundreds of government troops and seized strategic official facilities, even as Afghan and U.S. officials repeatedly asserted that the city was under government control and that the insurgents were being systematically cleared out.

By late Tuesday, the Taliban appeared to have lost the first war, with the smoldering city relatively calm and most insurgent fighters in retreat. A U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. Martin O’Donnell, said that “no enemy activity” was reported in the city all day. In an email, he included aerial images of the Ghazni prison and other intact buildings that the Taliban claimed to have captured or destroyed. He also said the attack served no purpose other than to generate sensational headlines, adding that the Taliban remains incapable of holding territory defended by Afghan forces.

But some analysts said the insurgents may have won the second war, scoring a psychological blow that forcefully contradicts revived hopes for truces and peace talks. That achievement, they said, also weakens confidence in the U.S.-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani and could disrupt parliamentary elections in two months.

“The Taliban’s strategy is to exhaust the Afghan and NATO security forces and further undermine the credibility of the Afghan government, rather than to hold territories they cannot hold,” said Davood Moradian, director of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies. The insurgents, he said, are not interested in fighting to talk but in “fighting to win.”

The battle for Ghazni marked one of the more significant challenges in recent years, not only for Afghan forces but for the U.S. service members who advise them. O’Donnell said Tuesday that several U.S. units were involved, including Special Operations forces, the Army’s new security force advisory brigade and Task Force Southeast, a unit of conventional U.S. Army advisers.

U.S. officials would not provide specifics about American troops’ involvement in the fight, but O’Donnell acknowledged that a photograph circulating on social media shows a U.S. Special Operations member who was wounded in the past few days in or near Ghazni. It depicts the service member in a hospital gown receiving a Purple Heart, which recognizes injuries suffered in combat.

At the same time that Taliban insurgents were invading the Ghazni provincial capital with a large ground force, they launched smaller attacks in scattered rural areas this past week, killing 17 troops at a base in the western province of Faryab and 12 policemen in a river town in the northern province of Takhar. Both attacks were typical of recent insurgent tactics that have led to steady inroads in rural regions. As of early this year, the Taliban controlled or influenced 43 percent of Afghan territory, according to an independent U.S. government oversight office.

But the ferocious assault on Ghazni, which left much of the city without water or power, numerous buildings on fire and hospitals overwhelmed with emergency cases, was the most significant Taliban attack on a major urban center in nearly three years.

In October 2015, insurgents overran the northern city of Kunduz and held it for nearly two weeks amid fierce fighting and U.S. air attacks, one of which mistakenly killed 42 people at a hospital. Elite U.S. troops eventually helped drive the insurgents out of Kunduz in heavy ground combat, according to declassified statements from Green Beret soldiers.

“Tens upon tens upon tens of thousands of rounds were fired against us in our effort to retake the city,” one soldier told investigators after the battle.

“How no [American] was killed, or even wounded, is an absolute miracle,” the soldier said.

Although the Taliban has long been active in Ghazni province, the attack on the city came as a shock, in part because it used massive force, reportedly included non-Afghan Islamist fighters, and showed signs of long-term planning — all at a time when other recent events had raised hopes for a breakthrough in the stalemated conflict.

During an unprecedented three-day cease-fire in June, Afghan civilians, troops and Taliban fighters celebrated together, leading to talk of a second truce later this month. In July, secret talks were held between Taliban officials and U.S. diplomats in Qatar, and some insurgent officials said they expected follow-up meetings to take place.

Now the intentions of Taliban leaders, some of whom were said to have been taken aback by their fighters’ sudden enthusiasm for mingling with civilians, seem much less clear. Several Afghan experts said the leaders appear to have little interest in negotiating a settlement if it requires them to abandon their goal of imposing full Islamic law, or sharia, after 17 years of fighting.

The battle for Ghazni illustrates a disconnect between “the Taliban’s military-centric strategy” and the “self-delusion” of Kabul and Washington about prospects for a negotiated settlement, said Moradian, of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies. He noted that the Afghan defense forces have shown new “resilience and coherence” and that the Afghan public lives “in dread of the Taliban’s return to power.” But he also said the insurgents’ rigid ideological goal makes them difficult to appease.

Other Afghans, including some officials in Ghazni, complained that their warnings about the insurgent threat were ignored by officials in Kabul. After the assault started, they said, military reinforcements took several days to arrive. And in some cases, local security forces made deals with Taliban fighters — even though the insurgents were far outnumbered — to let them occupy certain parts of the city, these critics said.

“If the government had heeded those concerns and sent additional forces sooner, this catastrophe would not have happened,” said Atiqullah Amarkhail, a retired army general and analyst. “In some areas, there was no resistance at all. People know the government is weak and divided and corrupt, and they have no confidence in it.”

From several accounts of Ghazni residents who escaped the besieged city, it was clear that the insurgents had sown terror among the civilian populace. It also appeared that the tide of battle turned only after the arrival of Afghan special operations forces and U.S. military advisers during the weekend, as well as repeated aerial attacks and flyovers by U.S. military aircraft.

Mohammed Salim, 32, a government worker in Ghazni who fled to another location, said in a cellphone interview Tuesday that he was violently awakened by explosions and gunfire when the attack began early Friday.Taliban fighters later entered his neighborhood and took up sniper positions on nearby rooftops, he said.

“As long as the planes were in the sky, things were calm, but as soon as they left, the Taliban began attacks again,” Salim said. He said he feared for his life, noting that fighters had entered his cousin’s house and found some government ID cards.

“They smashed dishes, windows, doors, the refrigerator and television,” he said. “They would have burned down the house, too, but the neighbors begged them not to do it.”

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...a1991f075d5_story.html?utm_term=.72fcc4dbeaf4