Taliban members. FILE PHOTO: REUTERS/Parwiz
On November 4th, the Taliban captured a joint Afghan National Army (ANA) and police forces base in Terinkot, the capital of the Uruzgan province as reported by Pajhwok Afghan News.
According to anonymous sources, 25 ANA and Police forces were stationed in the base when the Taliban attacked on the evening of November 3rd in the Nawa area of Terinkot.
The number of security personnel or Taliban killed and injured in the attack is unclear. The anonymous source also added that the Taliban seized weapons and vehicles from the base.
Initially, the capture was reported by an anonymous source. However, the Uruzgan provincial council confirmed the incident, without elaboration.
Pajhwok Afghan News also cited an unnamed official of the Afghanistan Ministry of Defense who also confirmed the fall of the security base. The source also said that several security personnel members were killed, without providing a specific number.
The Taliban also released a statement saying that they captured the base in Terinkot city, named Tabai Kotla, killing 10 and taking 13 hostages.
Also, on November 4th, Taliban fighters suspended mobile phone services in the province in the Ghazni province, as reported by Pajhwok.
There are numerous recent reports of increased Taliban activity and frequent clashes with Afghan Security Forces.
On October 30th, Army Gen. Austin Miller spoke to NBC News. He is the new US general leading NATO’s Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan as of September 2nd.
When he assumed control there were near-record casualties and injuries of Afghan forces. He instituted a more aggressive policy of helping the Afghan military track and defeat the Taliban — what he calls “regaining the tactical initiative.”
Two months later, he appears to be disillusioned.
“This is not going to be won militarily,” Miller said. “This is going to a political solution.”
“My assessment is the Taliban also realizes they cannot win militarily,” he said. “So if you realize you can’t win militarily at some point, fighting is just, people start asking why. So you do not necessarily wait us out, but I think now is the time to start working through the political piece of this conflict.”
Miller also escaped a Taliban attack unharmed on October 18th in Kandahar city during a meeting with Kandahar’s governor. One of the governor’s bodyguards had joined the Taliban side and then attempted an insider attack that was thwarted. A key U.S.-backed Afghan warlord in the country’s volatile southern region, Kandahar police chief Gen. Abdul Raziq, was killed in the attack.
Also, on October 30th, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR released its quarterly report on the situation in Afghanistan.
According to it, as of July, the Afghan government controls or influences only 55.5 percent of the country’s 407 districts. This is the lowest since the reports began in November 2015.
The numbers of Afghan security forces casualties are at record numbers from May to October 2018, compared to similar periods in the past.
May was the most active month, accounting for 26 percent of all casualties during this five-month period. About 52 percent of the casualties during this time came during checkpoint operations, while 35 percent occurred during patrols.
SIGAR also reported that the number of checkpoint casualties is increasing while the number of patrol casualties is decreasing. Which simply means that the Taliban are beginning to capture areas and not just attempting to slowly chip away at control of a province.
About 65% of the population is under Afghan government control, which remains unchanged.
Approximately 12% of the country is reportedly under Taliban control, while 32.4% is contested.
Since November 2015, overall Afghan government control and influence over districts has gone down by 16%; contested districts have gone up 11% and Taliban control and influence has gone up by 5.5%.
“The control of Afghanistan’s districts, population, and territory overall became more contested this quarter, with both the Afghan government and the insurgency losing districts and land area under their control or influence,” SIGAR officials wrote in their report.
This also follows a Taliban offensive on the city of Ghazni in August. Afghanistan’s elite Commando units suffered heavy losses. The city was retaken after several days. It is, however, showing that the Taliban’s control is increasing, since even the elite unit suffered great casualties, mostly due to fatigue and overuse of the Afghan security forces.
On November 4th, Russia’s foreign ministry said that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had agreed to send a group of senior politicians to peace talks in Moscow, at which a delegation representing the Taliban are to be present. The statement claimed that the talks will be held on November 9th. Such a proposal for a meeting was rejected in August by the US-backed Ghani government.
“It will be the first time that a delegation from the Taliban’s political office in Doha will attend such a high-level international meeting,” the foreign ministry said. The ministry added that it had invited several other countries to send representatives, including India, Iran, Pakistan, China and the United States.
On October 13th, Taliban officials confirmed that they had met with a US delegation in Doha. This is the first time such a meeting was confirmed by either side. According to the Taliban side, the new Afghan envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad met with Taliban officials.
AFGHANISTAN is TALIBAN COUNTRY ..Outsiders TRYING to WESTERNIZE HARDCORE TRIBES MAN
Taliban has surrendered more than once,. Then the USA pretty much recreated operation phoenix and went house to house executing and arresting people.
The Taliban are a Pakistani creation. They were Afghans who studied in the Salafist Koran schools in Pakistan (henceforth taliban, as talib is the Arabic word for student), most probably Saudi funded, and went back into Afghanistan to fight the various warlords who were tearing the country apart after the fall of the former Soviet backed regime. And while they imposed their Saudi taught strict Islamic rules and codes wherever they went, most Afghans welcomed them of sorts because they at least put an end to infighting of the warlords.
So if anything Afghanistan is not Taliban country. They’re an artificial outside creation. At least that’s how they started out in the 90’s. Since we’re 2 decades further I reckon that the Taliban have probably considerably changed, merged with their former warlord foes and are now heavily engaged in the heroin trade, which they used to oppose, to fund their war effort.
The U.S., the United Kingdom, IsraHell… Created False Flag 911 Controlled Demolition of the Twin Towers to invade Afghanistan and Start producing Heroin again…. Because in 2001 the Opium production had dropped to almost Zero under the Taliban… this was the Core Reason of the War in Afghanistan…the Production of Opioids to Create addicts in the U.S. & the Rest of the World… the CIA is the Biggest Drugsdealer in the World…. Cocaine & Weapons already their Core Business for Decades…
The Taliban are Sunni Islamic fundamentalists – Taliban means ‘student’ – just how representative they are of whole of Afghanistan, a deeply conservative Islamic society and culture, is a moot point. However, it has long been little remarked upon, in western media, that under full Taliban rule, at very end of 1990’s and into early 2000’s, the Afghan heroin trade was dramatically curtailed under the Taliban’s anti-narcotic policies. Do you have any evidence, or credible reports, that the Taliban as factional whole have altered from their previous anti-narcotic policies?
AFGHANISTAN….THE WEST IS ONLY OCCUPYING YOUR NATION TO PRODUCE HEROIN FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD…. JUST LET THE UNITED STATES, ISRAHELL & THE UNITED KINGDOM MAKE SUM BUCKS…..
I know one thing by some obscure reason, lord knows why, (the nirvana of hashish, even to day, old timers gets misty eyes, just be wording their names, what an barbaric time we live in, when we are deprived the gifts of our creatore, its an teacher, and use it with care, moderation as in everything else in life, and its not harmfull, its what you make it to be, nothing else) want to travel up Hindu Kush, and then an half cirle to I get to Iran, and end it there. If our lord is mercifull and benevolent, I walk it alone if I have to, or perhaps on an scooter, tut tut, hehe.
One thing people forget, and that is the contsant wars whom have been waging for generations of Afganistans have shattered a lot, also people, and heroin is an as much an enemy of the Afgans as everywhere else, because of Afganistans history, bu to me Afganistan is much more, give it time to heal and I mean it, decades, then I know I would come to an land witch would be unrecognised for what it is right now, its an mountain land, and vast vallys, and oasises to forest ranges. And an people knows for its hostpitality and generosity, and iif you reflect that back, you would not have any problems, Afganistan was an country that would propably shock you if you watch old videos, before the empires desided to do something with it, that Afganistan is stil there, just crushed under decades of total war.
I hope, that Taliban is learning, extrem times will one day end, then what. And I also hope they will draw their wisdom from the true teachings of the Noble Quran, and create the paradise it once where, and now, you even have the resouces to make it happen, again.
Blessed be the peace makers.
peace
What really pisses me off, is that the US invaded blah blah and it now uses Afghans to do their dirty work as cannon fodder; how many dead innocent Afghans on both sides have died because of the US wankers ?
Entire Afghan nation want freedom from US and NATO forces. Now they are united on this one important issue to kick out all foreign forces from their land.