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Approximately 100 soldiers of the Afghan Special Forces have gone missing in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, as announced by Afghan authorities on August 13th.
The Afghan Special Forces, who are backed by US airstrikes are fighting the Taliban in the province.
Afghanistan’s Tolo News reported that “10 personnel of the missing unit had been killed and 20 others discovered alive” in the Ajristan district.
On August 10th, the Taliban began an assault on the city of Ghazni which as of August 14th is still on-going. The city is located 125 km south of Kabul. The fighting began after hundreds of Taliban insurgents stormed important government entities including the National Directorate for Security (Afghanistan’s Inteligence Agency) and the provincial governor’s office.
Ghazni lies on the Kabul-Kandahar highway, an important artery connecting the capital to the country’s southern provinces and some of its western ones.
The death toll is above 300, including civilians, security forces and Taliban fighters according to Afghan government officials, cited by Al Jazeera.
On August 13th, Defence Minister Tariq Shah Bahrami said on Monday “about 100 security forces” were killed in the intense fighting, as well “between 20 and 30 civilians”.
Bahrami, while speaking at a press conference in Kabul also said that 194 Taliban fighters, as well as 12 of their “key commanders” have been killed, mostly by US airstrikes. According to the US military headquarters in Kabul, the US have conducted at least 9 air strikes on August 11th and 12th. Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has also ordered for more troops to be sent to Ghanzi.
Information on the conflict is limited, as Al Jazeera reported that most of the telecom masts have been destroyed and local media stopped broadcasting. Roads in and out of the city have been blocked and damaged by the Taliban forces to prevent Afghan reinforcements.
Rik Peeperkorn, acting UN humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan, expressed concerns for the civilians living in Ghazni. “[Ghazni’s residents] have seen their city turn into a battlefield since Friday morning … parties across the conflict need to ensure that access to medical services is not denied and respect for medical facilities and staff is upheld,” his statement said.
The conflict comes as the US and the Afghan government are in peace talks with the Taliban.
Al Jazeera quotes government officials who admit that they have been taken by surprise by the Taliban attack, however insisted that Ghazni would not fall under their control. Afghan forces reportedly remained in control of key government positions and the institutions in the city.
On August 12th, Najib Danish, the Interior Ministry’s spokesman, said reinforcements have been sent Ghazni and were trying to clear it of the Taliban.
The assault on Ghazni is the largest tactical operation launched by the Taliban forces since the three-day truce during the Islam holiday Eid in June.
FAP. And the circus continues.
Whooooooooooooa there! Wait a minute, didn’t the US representative say that everything was handled, all was cool? The fighting must therefore be going on in the bars and brothels over near the coalition compound eh?!? But, I guess now that sooooooooooooooooo many key commanders of the Taliban have been successfully liquidated, in the cleanest of fashion, it is all over right?
Baloney. This is why I can’t take one word from US command seriously. The BS never stops.
I was wondering if the US devil is fighting and bombing Taliban who the hell is funding Taliban with money and weapons, Who, what countries>
Officially? No one. It’s an insurgency primarily by the Pashtun, who – like the Houthis – don’t need much more than an AK-47 and the desire to kick invaders (and their corrupt, puppet governments) out of their respective countries. The difference here is that the Pashtun areas span the Afghanistan/Pakistani border. Pakistan has little desire to start a war with ITS Pashtun to prevent Afghani Pashtun (militants or refugees) from coming and going. Afghanistan and Pakistan are flooded with weapons, the black markets take care of the rest.
There’s also the Wahhabi factor: Saudi Arabia financed expansion of it’s Wahhabi Death Cult decades ago in Pakistan. Afghan Pashtun refugees in Pakistan adopted their version of Wahhabi ideology and brought it back to Afghanistan as the Taliban. Wahhabi or Wahhabi-like interpretations of Islam are held by many in the Pakistani military and intelligence services, and many of the members are sympathetic to the Afghan Taliban and have supported them. Unofficially, you would expect the usual Saudi and GCC oligarchs (as individuals, not as the states) financially supporting the Taliban over the years. The Taliban have their own self-financing activities today (competing with the CIA for opium market) and don’t rely on outside financing.
The Saudi Wahhabization of Pakistan and Afghanistan (and everywhere else) obviously isn’t for the benefit of the U.S. or it’s interests in Afghanistan. This is part of the larger regional effort of Saudi Arabia to produce armies of head-choppers to counter Iran’s perceived influence in the region = kill Shia and ultimately invade/destroy Iran. Regardless of what the Saudis claim otherwise, the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan is just fine with them.
US is bombing civilians and making more enemies. The Taliban like the US created ISIS use mostly captured America and NATO weaponry. The ANA or Afghan army only exists on paper and has phantom soldiers on roster like the South Vietnamese ARVN puppets. The ANA sells most of its weapons to the Taliban. Go any any bazaar in Afghanistan or Pakistan and you will find mountains of pilfered US supplies, anything from M-4 assault rifles to TOW missiles. The Taliban is now operating as a modern army and able to conduct combined arms operations and hold cities. Afghanistan is a bigger disaster for US losers than Iraq or Syria and will have very severe long term strategic consequences.
How many of the 70 missing soldiers might have deserted to the Taliban, or just been ghosts on the payroll?
I don’t have any particular love for backwards Muslim barbarians, but I do admire a brave fighter on his home turf.
Crazy bastards are heroes on their side.
And heroes never die.
The Muslim “barbarians” taught the Europeans how to read and write as well as medicine, science, architecture, algebra, chemistry etc. Time to go back to skool kiddo :)
The statement that the Taliban taught these things to the Europeans is absurd.
But that’s the statement you’ve made, whether you meant to or not.
actually it was the classic romans and the greeks who did, but don’t let me get into your illusions
The puppet ANA is like the South Vietnamese US created runaway ARVN. The fact is that Taliban and resistance control 90% of the country and US and NATO cowards are bunkered down in penny pockets in Kabul, Kandahar, Khost, Mazar e Sharif, Herat and a few cities and are too scared to come out and fight, instead as usual US cowards and NATO puppets bomb Afghan civilians and create more enemies. US is a total loser in the Graveyard of Empires.