terrorism

Kabul Investigating Taliban Use of Russian-made Night Vision Goggles

Defense officials in the Afghan government have admitted this week that Taliban militants have obtained night-vision equipment but would not confirm suspicions that the Russians are furnishing the Taliban with the equipment.

The officials said that an investigation is continuing on the matter of the potential game-changer of high-tech equipment being introduced to Taliban forces were actually provided by Russian contacts.

The New York Times on Monday reported that Taliban militants using sophisticated night-vision goggles killed eight Afghan police officers at a checkpoint near Farah, capital of the province of the same name in western Afghanistan.
That Taliban have access to high-tech weapons has been reported in the media for a while. But the recent allegations of Taliban receiving Russian-made equipment prompted the Afghan government to investigate how the militant group is able to get the technology.
Russian embassy officials in Kabul denied that Moscow has been providing military or financial assistance to Taliban, saying the allegations are baseless.
“This device [goggles] would be installed on rifles. It can prove very dangerous, because it enables its user to see a person at night like a person at daylight. They also have accuracy and precision. Hence, its danger is immense,” Atiqullah Amerkhail, a retired Afghan army general, told VOA.

The Russians, who invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and fought a long guerrilla war until 1989 are being criticized by Kabul for once again interfering with Afghan politics for opening up contacts within the Taliban.

The Russians however, state they are simply trying to restart stalled peace talks between the Taliban and the US-led coalition. US General John Nicholson the commander of US forces in Afghanistan hinted as far back as April that the US was aware of Russian arming of insurgents.

“We continue to get reports of this assistance. We support anyone who wants to help us advance the reconciliation process, but anyone who arms belligerents who perpetuate attacks like the one we saw two days ago in Mazar-e Sharif is not the best way forward to a peaceful reconciliation,” Nicholson said.

To read the entire article from The Voice of America click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Taliban “Special Forces” Another Issue Coalition Forces Must Deal With

The Taliban has been touting their “Special Forces” unit for quite some time, however with recent attacks on Afghan government police and conventional military units, they’ve been pushed to the forefront in the news. Reports of the Taliban using night vision equipment and laser aiming devices have the Afghans worrying. On November 13, Taliban units aided by a mole inside killed eight policemen in Farah as they slept using night vision equipment.

In August, the Taliban released a professionally made 73-minute video that featured Taliban fighters dressed and acting much like US Special Operations troops. The Taliban claim that their “Red Group” are using captured US M-4s and night vision equipment and the beginning of their video shows the Taliban “SF” kitted out much and moving much like a US Special Operations unit would.

They supposedly train with small arms, pistols, heavy machine guns, 82mm mortars and more. They have small pickup trucks with heavy machineguns (technicals). However, in the still photos of their training that been released show Taliban fighters all carrying AK -type weapons. And while there has to be an increased level of training, these Taliban “SF” units are no match for US SOF at the present time.

A U.S. Special Forces Soldier searches a tree line for insurgent activity, in Afghanistan. (U.S. Army photo Special Operations Task Force South).

There have been reports going back to the summer of 2016 of certain Taliban units using night vision and lasers but their own propaganda always overstated their capabilities and numbers. But now one of the questions has to be who is sponsoring and equipping these Taliban units. Since the night vision devices seem to be of Russian origin, the first reaction is that Moscow is behind it. But Russian military arms and equipment are easy to get on the Black Market and neighboring Pakistan is an easy place for them to pick up whatever they need. There is also the distinct possibility that the Taliban are receiving support and training from the Iranians.

The question of possible Russian support was broached to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in October. His response to lawmaker’s questions was that there was no direct evidence that the Russians were supporting the Taliban and the government was working to find more evidence to either confirm or deny.

But now the Afghan units, which aren’t nearly as well trained, capable or reliable as the US-trained and led Afghan Special Forces are reeling over this and other attacks where Taliban troops are using the same types of vehicles as Afghan government troops to confuse the troops as their intention until it is too late. It would also shield them from drone and air attacks as they’d be mistaken for the Afghan government troops.

Since the first Gulf War, the US and their coalition troops have ruled the night with the widespread use of night vision goggles. Now the Taliban have upped the ante a little bit. They’re threatening to change the status quo. They’re not going after the US-led Special Forces units but attacking “softer” targets with police units which don’t have the same level of training or equipment. That further undermines the already shaky hold the government has in the disputed countryside. The Taliban are challenging the US’ monopoly on owning the night. And now they’ll be forced to deal with this latest development.

What can be done? First, the US will have to continue to pressure Pakistan to close sanctuaries and use their intelligence capability to locate the sources of and neutralize any and all support for the Taliban.

Next, they must try to find the locations where the training of this unit is done and where these “Special Forces” units are massing at. Then they’ll be able to engage them with airstrikes and drone attacks. As well as US Special Operations troops.

The war in Afghanistan is no closer to a finish than it was 16 years ago. The government hasn’t been able to stand up on its own and the Taliban control vast swaths of the countryside. The one constant during the war, was the US and its coalition forces owning the night. Now, this potentially may be in jeopardy as well It must be addressed and as soon as possible.

Photos: Taliban video, US Army

Germany Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia and Egypt Increases Five Fold

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration has been increasing its arms sales to the Middle East. And particularly to what was characterized as “dictatorships” in both Egypt and Saudi Arabia. This has brought a wave of criticism leveled at Merkel from the left with one opposition lawmaker calling the practice “reprehensible.”

The German government’s arms sales have increased nearly five times from what they sold in the third quarter of 2016. Merkel’s administration approved nearly €450 million ($526 million) of weapons exports to Saudi Arabia and Egypt in the third quarter of 2017. During the same time period last year, arms sales were €86 million.

Opposition Left Party’s Stefan Liebich criticized the government’s exports to both countries as “particularly reprehensible.”

Saudi Arabia and Egypt have “to answer for the thousands of deaths from their dirty war in Yemen,” he said, referring to the ongoing civil war between Houthi rebels and Yemen’s government.
The Saudi-led coalition military intervention in Yemen has led to the death of nearly 10,000 people and created the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis in one of the Arab world’s poorest state. Human rights organizations have said the Saudi-led coalition may have commmitted war crimes, and the UN has warned some 7 million people face possible famine.
As Liebich pointed out, Germany’s policies used to be more restrictive. “There were times when it was completely ruled out for Germany to deliver weapons to countries that were participating in wars,” he said. “That only changed in the last two governments. It started with Turkey, which was sold weapons despite its war with the Kurds — that was a controversial discussion at the time.”

The problem now lies with the working coalition inside the government coming to a new agreement concerning arms sales. While many on the left want arms sales curtailed, others such as the Christian Social Union will want to protect and build up the arms industries in Bavaria.

To read the entire article from Deutsche Welle, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Russians “Irrefutable Proof” US Support of ISIS is a Video Game Shot

Russia’s Ministry of Defense has egg on their face when they were caught lying about a serious charge that the US isn’t trying to defeat ISIS but actually is helping the Islamic State. Russia’s claims to have “irrefutable evidence” that US forces are in league with ISIS was actually footage from a video game.

Russia, along with Iran has backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the civil war there. US-backed peshmerga forces have also been fighting ISIS but Moscow has claimed all along that US efforts have been at best ineffective and have actually been plotting to help ISIS. So, with nothing but allegations, Moscow decided to show their “proof.” And Russians citizens quickly took them to task for it.

Russians following the ministry on social media were quick to note that one of the stills was identical to computer-generated footage from a game, uploaded on YouTube two years ago. The clip from AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron subsequently started receiving dozens of sarcastic comments.
The ministry’s crop of the image even contained parts of the disclaimer text in the top right-hand corner, presumably left by the developer, which read: “Development footage. This is a work in progress. All content subject to change.” The ministry later deleted the images.
Military research site Conflict Intelligence Team and the investigative website Bellingcat, which has previously debunked Russian state-supported stories about events in Ukraine, also identified another one of the images as a shot from footage of Iraq taken in 2016.
“What am I paying my taxes for,” one Russian user exclaimed, before veering into expletives. “This is something hands should be cut off for,” one commenter concluded. “Shame and humiliation.”
“Another embarrassment in front of the whole world. I am not even sad for the country but I laugh in unison with it,” another user chimed in.

The tweet in Russian was quickly taken down as well as the English version. But as the Russian MOD quickly found out, the internet is forever.

To read the entire article from Newsweek, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Russia, U.S. In a Stalemate Over Syria Chemical Weapons Probe

Russia was playing double speak on Monday, on one hand stating that it was still in talks with the United States about the ongoing inquiry by the U.N. Security Council into the Syrian governments use of chemical weapons on their own people, but the US countered that the Russians have refused to engage on the draft resolution sponsored by Washington.

The U.N. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), has found the Syrian government used the banned nerve agent sarin in an April 4 attack. But yet Moscow continues to play this game that the investigation proving that isn’t over and must continue.

Russia vetoed an initial U.S. bid to renew the joint investigation on Oct. 24, saying it wanted to wait for the release of the latest investigation’s report two days later. It has since proposed its own rival draft resolution.
“We are talking to the U.S., it’s not over yet,” Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters on Monday.
“Russia has refused to engage on our draft resolution – which the vast majority of council members agree is the most viable text – in spite of our multiple attempts to consider Russian concerns,” a spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations said on Monday.
A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, Britain and France to pass. The council unanimously created the inquiry, known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), in 2015 and renewed it in 2016.

There is precedence here, the Syrian government used chlorine gas in two attacks in 2014 and again in 2015 and the Islamic State used mustard gas. And yet Syria still maintains that it destroyed its chemical weapons arsenal in 2013.

To read the entire article from the Reuters, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Raqqa’s Dirty Secret, Thousands of ISIS Fighters, Families Allowed to Flee

After months of bloody, hard fighting, the Syrians trying to take back their territory from the Islamic State wanted the fighting to be over. Especially so in the self-styled “caliphate” of Raqqa. The Syrians entered into a deal with ISIS to allow their fighters and families to escape Raqqa. The agreement was supposed to forbid foreign fighters from escaping and allow only personal belongings, but ISIS quickly reneged on that, taking all of their foreign fighters as well as loading trucks with arms and ammunition.

The Kurdish-led SDF announced that the convoy would not be televised and only a few dozen ISIS fighters would be allowed to leave. But the BBC has uncovered, with photos, that the numbers were much, much higher, perhaps as high as 4000. The convoy was six kilometers long with 50 trucks, 13 buses and over 100 of ISIS’ own vehicles.

They might have been helping the fighters escape, but the Arab drivers were abused the entire route, they say. And threatened.
“They said, ‘Let us know when you rebuild Raqqa – we will come back,’” says Abu Fawzi. “They were defiant and didn’t care. They accused us of kicking them out of Raqqa.”
A female foreign fighter threatened him with her AK-47.

Another French fighter for the Islamic State escaped to Idlib where he intends to stay but had an ominous warning about the allowing of foreign fighters to escape.

“There are some French brothers from our group who left for France to carry out attacks in what would be called a ‘day of reckoning.”
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, somewhat improbably, continue to maintain that no deal was done.
And this may not even have been about freeing civilian hostages. As far as the coalition is concerned, there was no transfer of hostages from IS to coalition or SDF hands.
And despite coalition denials, dozens of foreign fighters, according to eyewitnesses, joined the exodus.
The deal to free IS was about maintaining good relations between the Kurds leading the fight and the Arab communities who surround them.

So, in an effort to minimize the killing in Raqqa, the deal to allow hundreds of fighters and thousands of family members to leave Raqqa may have averted bloodshed in Syria for the short term, but as their actions showed, they will continue to bring terror in other parts of the world. How steep will the cost be elsewhere?

To read the entire article from the BBC, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Kristallnacht- Night of the Broken Glass, The Holocaust Begins in Germany

The events of November 9-10, 1938 in Germany sealed the fate of the Jewish population in Germany and set the stage for the horrible, unspeakable events that were to follow in what we now call the Holocaust.

Hitler’s henchmen all had a deep-seated hatred of the Jews and on the flimsiest of pretenses, they organized and began the events known in German as “Kristallnacht” or Night of the Broken Glass. Jewish shops, businesses, and synagogues were burned to the ground and severely vandalized. Jews on the streets were beaten and over 30,000 Jewish men were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. The persecution of the Jews under Nazi Germany went from the political, social and economic discrimination to outright physical beatings and forced deportations. Historian Max Rein in 1988, “Kristallnacht came…and everything was changed.”

This included the treatment of Nazi Germany by foreign governments who saw thru the subterfuge and were appalled at the acts of Hitler’s henchmen.

Ominous Beginnings: By the early 1920s, despite the latent Anti-Semitism that beat just below the surface of Europe, the Jews in Germany had fully assimilated themselves into German society. German Jews had served with distinction in the military during World War I, were respected members of academia and many had careers in the civil service.

All of this changed when Hitler came to power in 1933. Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, although he wasn’t even a German (he was born in Austria) and immediately initiated anti-Jewish programs. In 1933, the 500,000 German Jews accounted for just 0.86 percent of the German population. Yet according to Hitler and the Nazis the Jews, the bogeyman of Europe were responsible for Germany’s defeat in WWI, the resulting economic collapse of Germany, the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression.

Hitler first fired the Jews from all Civil Service jobs with the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” in April 1933.

In 1935, Jews were no longer allowed to marry non-Jewish Germans and were basically stripped of their citizenship under the Nuremberg Laws. The handwriting was on the wall. Many Jews tried to emigrate away but as Hitler’s noose tightened, the rest of world not only turned a blind eye but empowered the Nazis by imposing limits on the amount of Jews that they would allow into their borders.

Everyone in the world knew that in 1938, that a massive pogrom was going to be initiated against the Jews in Germany, the Nazi party wanted the appropriate the Jews wealth for their own and were only waiting for the slightest provocation.

The Expulsion of Polish Jews and the Assassination of Von Rath: The Germans in August 1938, began to expel Jews of Polish origin. They forced 12,000 to leave all their belongings and were allowed to carry only one suitcase per person with less than 24-hours notice. The Polish government turned its back on them and would only allow 4000 to enter. The rest were forced back across the border where they were stuck in exile between two countries that didn’t want them. Conditions were horrible, with no food, water or shelter. The Nazis looted their belongings as soon as they left.

One couple Sendel and Riva Grynszpan who were expelled to Poland had a son, Herschel who was living in Paris. When he heard of his parents’ plight he decided to strike back at the Nazi regime.

He went to the German embassy and asked to see an official. He was shown into the office of Ernst Von Rath, a career diplomat with the German Foreign Service. Grynszpan pumped two bullets into Von Rath, and he died the next day. The bitter irony of this was, Von Rath had spoken out against the Nazis publicly, specifically for their treatment of the Jews. The Gestapo had a file on him, accusing him of being disloyal and there were thoughts of having him removed from the Foreign Service. Now there was no need. Von Rath became an unwilling pawn in the very operation that he abhorred.

Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels told the Party leadership that ‘World Jewry’ had conspired to commit the assassination. He added that “the Führer has decided that… demonstrations should not be prepared or organized by the party, but insofar as they erupt spontaneously, they are not to be hampered.”

The Pogrom Begins: The Nazis acted quickly. The next morning, November 9, they barred Jewish children from German state elementary schools, indefinitely suspending Jewish cultural activities, and stopped the publication of Jewish newspapers and magazines, including the three national German Jewish newspapers.

Reinhard Heydrich, Commander of the German SA sent an urgent secret telegram to the Sturmabteilung (SA), containing instructions regarding the riots. The security police were to protect the lives of foreigners and non-Jewish businesses and property. Police were instructed not to interfere with the riots in any way unless the guidelines were violated. The SA and Police were also instructed to seize Jewish archives from synagogues and community offices and to arrest and detain “healthy male Jews, who are not too old”, to be sent to the concentration camps.

The well-planned “spontaneous” demonstrations began all over Germany during the night. Over 7500 Jewish shops were smashed and vandalized. 267 synagogues were burned to the ground. Some 29 department stores, owned by Jews were destroyed. Local fire departments were told not to intervene unless the fires were spreading to non-Jewish buildings Jewish cemeteries were vandalized and many had their headstones ripped out of the ground. Important papers, religious scrolls, books and other Jewish artifacts were burned. Over 30,000 men were rounded up and sent to the concentration camps at Dachau, Belsen, and Sachsenhausen.

Mob rule took over and the resultant orgy of violence began to spill over to the people. Although there were guidelines in place not to bring physical violence to the people, especially foreigners, even Jewish foreigners but that soon became moot as Germans began beating and robbing of Jews on the streets. Although exact numbers were never made available, it is believed that more than 90 people were killed during the pogrom. The German government then did what you’d expect.

They accused the Jews of igniting this “spontaneous” protest and fined the Jewish community 10 billion Reichsmarks.

After the ransacking and destruction of their property during Kristallnacht, the Jews were forced to pay another “community” fine of one billion Reichsmarks for the murder of Von Rath. And all Jewish property was immediately assessed a special tax where 20 percent of all Jewish property was levied to the state. The insurance that Jewish shop and business owners had taken out to protect their business? The six million Reichsmarks owed to them was instead paid to the state for “damages.”

After Kristallnacht, the treatment of the Jews became more and more under the auspices of the SS.

While the world was appalled by what they saw, they mostly stood by and did nothing. Some refugees were allowed into the United States and into Palestine. Britain approved the Kindertransport of refugee children. But many others turned a blind eye or their backs to the Jewish refugees who were trying to flee what was to be certain death at the hands of the Nazis. And just seven years later, the world would see first-hand the cost of turning their attention away from the Jewish plight when American and Russian troops began to liberate the concentration camps.

Photos: Wikipedia

Bin Laden’s Son Calls for Rebellion Against the US

The son of Osama bin Laden has called on the followers of his father to “rise in rebellion … against the agents of the Americans” and “to incite the masses … until the preparations are complete & the masses are ready for an uprising.” Hamza bin Laden has been being groomed for a larger role in his father’s organization for some time. The al-Qaeda leadership has gradually increased his exposure as his respect within the organization also increases.

In this latest message bin Laden, now 28, called on all Muslims to “take revenge on the Americans” for killing his father. His comments were made thru al-Qaeda as-Sahab Media Foundation in a speech on Tuesday.

Hamza told followers he rejected democracy, saying “freedom cannot be earned with worthless pieces of paper cast inside a ballot box.”
The release of the speech came just a few days after the CIA released a video of Hamza’s wedding as part of a massive trove of documents recovered during the 2011 raid in Pakistan that killed his father.
Prior to the release from the CIA, the public had seen only photos of Hamza as a child.

The favored son of Osama bin Laden, Hamza as a young child was often seen at his father’s side, sometimes holding his rifle, or at others reciting a poem or prayer. Now as an adult, he bears a striking resemblance to his father and has followed in his footsteps in engaging in global jihad.

Hamza was married in Iran in 2009 to the daughter of a senior al-Qaeda official although his father was hiding in Pakistan at the time, he was anxious to see the video and that was found on bin Laden’s computer when it was raided by Navy SEALs in 2011. Both his father and older brother Khalid were killed in the raid.

To read the entire article from Voice of America click here:

Photo courtesy CIA

NATO: Taliban Bases in Pakistan, A Threat to Peace

In a move that supports President Trump’s message that Pakistan must do more about allowing the Taliban sanctuaries in their country, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Taliban bases in Pakistan pose a “big challenge” to efforts aimed at bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan.

Stoltenberg said that he regularly brings this issue up to Pakistan’s military leaders and will continue to do so. These comments to the media were made on Tuesday from NATO’s headquarters in Brussels.

“We have to address the big challenge that [the] Taliban, the insurgents are working also out of bases in Pakistan. And we have raised that several times. It is extremely important that all countries in the region support efforts of the Afghan national unity government and that no country provide any kind of sanctuary for the terrorists,” said the NATO chief.
Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua while briefing a parliamentary committed on foreign affairs said Islamabad told Washington in recent high-level bilateral talks that all areas in Pakistan have been cleared of terrorists.
Janjua reiterated Pakistani forces will take immediate action if the United States provides “actionable intelligence” regarding the presence of terrorists in the country. She went on to assert terrorists are operating not out of Pakistan, but from across the Afghan border.
“In Afghanistan, 45 percent of the country is not under government control, which is why the Haqqani network and other terror groups do not need a safe haven in Pakistan,” Janjua said.

Stoltenberg reiterated NATO’s support for the Afghan government and said that NATO troop levels will rise shortly. There are currently 13,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan, he said those levels will rise to about 16,000. However, in keeping with the US policy of President Trump, Stoltenberg stated that the NATO troops will not be there conducted combat operations but beef up the train, assist and advise mission.

To read the entire article from Voice of America click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Battle of Mazar e Sharif, Special Forces Troops Mount Horseback Assault

The fall of Mazar-e-Sharif on November 9, 2001, was the first major defeat of the Taliban and was taken by the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (Northern Alliance), along with US Army Special Forces A-Teams and precision Air Force bombardment.

The taking of the city was somewhat of a shock for both the coalition troops as well as the Taliban. US intelligence estimates thought that the city would hold out until nearly mid-2002. The Taliban had been in control of the city since 1998 and had fortified the area with a tremendous amount of reinforcement.

But the Northern Alliance teams, with a few Green Beret and Air Force Combat Controller advisors, harnessed the might of the US Air Force and decimated the Taliban or their proxies wherever they massed. By the time the Taliban withdrew anywhere between 300-500 had been killed, another 500 captured and about 1000 defected. It was a classic UW (Unconventional Warfare) success story showing what a handful of Green Berets can do working with a dedicated and tough guerrilla force. And in doing so the Green Berets of the 5th Special Forces Group (5th SFG) had conducted the first horseback mounted attack by US troops in the 21st Century.

Infiltration: Just weeks after 9/11, the US would begin the process of taking the Taliban to task for allowing al-Qaeda to use their territory. In the early morning hours of Oct.19, 2001, an MH-47E Chinook landed in Darya Suf Valley in Afghanistan and 14 heavily laden men alit and gathered their equipment and extra gear and were met by Northern Alliance fighters along with four US CIA men assigned to assist the guerrillas. The men were ODA-595 from the 5th SFG along with two Air Force Combat Controllers. Another SF A-Team, ODA-555 landed hundreds of miles south and was also linking up with other Northern Alliance fighters. These men though small in number and very lightly armed would soon be changing history.

The Northern Alliance (NA) troops didn’t have many vehicles, many of them were riding horses and when ODA-595 met with the regional commander, they quickly were issued a horse and rode for eight hours to his mountain headquarters. The commander, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum had his eyes set on Mazar-e-Sharif, because that city, close to the border of Uzbekistan controlled the road to Kabul.

The Special Forces men advising Dostum and his NA had been in two pitched battles at Bishqab and Cobaki, riding into battle on horseback and American air power had turned the tide of each in favor of the lighter armed and numerically inferior SF/NA coalition. However, the news reports coming out had painted a very different picture of what was happening. According to the news, the SF troops were doing nothing. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was demanding answers. The commander of A-595, Captain Mitch Nelson, opened his laptop to find messages questioning what his troops were doing. What he wrote was an instant classic SITREP.

“I am advising a man on how to best employ light infantry and horse cavalry in the attack against Taliban T-55s, mortars, artillery, personnel carriers, and machine guns – a tactic which I think became outdated with the invention of the Gatling gun. [The mujahideen] have done this every day we have been on the ground. They have attacked with 10 rounds of ammunition per man, with snipers having less than 100 rounds – little water and less food. I have observed a PK gunner who walked 10-plus miles to get to the fight, who was proud to show me his artificial leg from the knee down.

We have witnessed the horse cavalry bounding overwatch from spur to spur to attack Taliban strongpoints – the last several kilometers under mortar, artillery, and sniper fire. There is little medical care if injured, only a donkey ride to the aid station, which is a dirt hut. I think [the mujahideen] are doing very well with what they have.

We could not do what we are doing without the close air support – everywhere I go the civilians and mujahideen soldiers are always telling me they are glad the U.S.A. has come. They all speak of their hopes for a better Afghanistan once the Taliban are gone.”

Then-Staff Sgt. Bart Decker, Air Force combat controller, on horseback with Northern Alliance forces. U.S. Army photo

On November 2, a third Special Forces A-Team infiltrated the area, ODA-534, along with members of the CIA SAD (Special Activities Division). They linked up with another Northern Alliance warlord, Atta Mohammed Noor 25 miles to the west of A-595.

The Taliban began trying to move a massive amount of troops including foreign fighters into Mazar-e-Sharif. Of the 4000 troops they were moving across the mountains there, only about 500 made it into the city. Massive B-52 airstrikes were decimating their ranks.

On November 9, members of the two ODAs and the CIA team positioned themselves in positions on the mountainsides and began calling in airstrikes against the Taliban at Tangi Pass – the entrance to the city where the NA/SF planned to attack.

Special Forces officer aims a laser target designator at a target in Afghanistan.

Taliban artillery, BM-21 Grad rockets responded, but were quickly suppressed by on-call US air support. The airstrikes were taking a deadly toll on the defenders. Once the enemy had been softened up enough, the NA/SF began their assault on foot, horseback, pick up trucks and by some captured BMP armored personnel carriers.

By the time the ground attack had started by 2 p.m., the NA troops of Dostrum and Noor were meeting only light resistance. They swept across the Pul-i-Imam Bukhri bridge and quickly seized the city’s main military base and the Mazar-e-Sharif International Airport.

As they were sweeping into the city, the Taliban began to retreat en masse along with foreign fighters and al-Qaeda towards Kunduz. There were anywhere between 5000 and 12,000 troops clogging the road on every conceivable vehicle to get away.

The taking of the city was shocking as US intelligence estimates thought it would take months before a large enough conventional unit could move on it. A handful of Special Forces troops advising a “rag-tag” guerrilla army on horseback took it in a matter of days. The SF troops with the outstanding performance of the Air Force’s Combat Controllers turned the battle into a rout. The US Air Force ruled the sky and the Taliban troops were decimated whenever they attempted to mass against the Northern Alliance. The taking of Mazar-e-Sharif gave the US a much-needed airstrip where they could launch aircraft right inside the country, instead of having to fly from far away.

But soon Afghanistan was flooded with a sea of conventional US troops. The Special Forces troops were relegated to a sideshow as the Big Army moved in. And sixteen years later, the country is still not secure, now being even less so as the Taliban once again controls much of the countryside. The Big Army has since moved on and now the Special Operations Forces of the US are back to being the main players again along with US air support.

One can draw on the words of Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson. Wilson was the driving force behind the covert CIA-led mission to drive the Russians out of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Once gone, the US quickly tired of the country which gave way to the Taliban coming to power. Wilson’s words could easily be the 2001 version of events just as easily as the 1989 version.

“These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world… and then we fucked up the end game.”

Photos: US Special Operations Command