Taliban forces reportedly captured the provincial capital of Kunduz on Sunday, bagging their third capital city in a single day after taking Sheberghan in Jawzjan province and Sar-e-Pul, capital of a province with the same name.
U.S. military and Afghan security forces killed an estimated 172 Taliban narco-jihadis over the weekend as both warring sides stepped up attacks in the wake of the cancellation of peace talks.
The U.S.-funded Afghan National Police (ANP) continues to engage in the ancient local custom of men sexually abusing young boys, the United Nations reported this week.
The strength of the Afghan security forces stands at its “lowest level” in years, a U.S. watchdog agency revealed Thursday.
Inadequate oversight for the U.S. taxpayer-funded $83 billion effort to develop the Afghan security forces has led to a waste of money and hindered the training and capabilities of the war-ravaged country’s troops, an American watchdog agency revealed this week.
The Afghan National Army (ANA), backed by U.S.-NATO troops, has killed an estimated 200 Taliban narco-jihadis in Afghanistan’s northern provinces, including 15 top commanders, since the terrorist group launched its so-called annual spring offensive on Friday, a local military spokesman revealed on Tuesday.
Taliban narco-jihadis killed at least 68 members of the U.S.-backed Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) and injured 38 others in fierce clashes over the weekend in the terrorist group’s opium-rich stronghold of Helmand, Afghanistan’s largest province located along the Pakistani border.
Some members of the United States-funded and trained Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) reportedly terrorized and robbed local Afghan personnel hired under U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) contracts of nearly $1 million in property and equipment between 2010 and March of this year.
The Afghanistan government on Monday contested reports claiming that the Taliban captured a record 150 American-trained and supplied Afghan border police officers and confiscated their U.S.-supplied weapons and military equipment after they surrendered over the weekend when the narco-jihadis chased them into neighboring Turkmenistan following ongoing battles in Badghis province.
The Pentagon is at risk of mismanaging yet another multi-billion project in Afghanistan — a modernization program intended to equip the Afghan Air Forces (AAF) with 159 state-of-the-art Black Hawk helicopters as part of efforts to address capability gaps, a U.S. watchdog agency reported Tuesday.
The number of Afghan districts under the control or influence of Kabul “reached the lowest level” since the American government began keeping records in November 2015, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a watchdog agency appointed by Congress, reported on Thursday.
The Afghan National Army (ANA) would not last more than six months, and the Kabul government would collapse, if the United States were to withdraw its financial and military support, declared Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
The United States military wants to ramp up its campaign against the Taliban, the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), and other jihadist groups in Afghanistan beyond the fighting season and into the winter months, declared the top American commander in the Middle East and South Asia.
American service members in Afghanistan have relatively recently been officially required to report when U.S. taxpayer-funded Afghan security forces sexually abuse young boys, but they are “not obligated” to intervene and may be criminally punished for doing so, according to an audit by the Pentagon inspector general (IG).
A congressionally-appointed watchdog agency warns that dozens of Afghan security troops, deemed “high-risk” after going absent without leave (AWOL) while training on U.S. soil since 2005, remain unaccounted for and “may pose a security risk.”
The Taliban is benefiting from corrupt leaders within the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) who choose to exploit U.S.-funded salaries by inflating the number of troops with so-called “ghost,” or nonexistent, soldiers to receive more money, according to two recently issued assessments.
The United States will deploy 3,500 American troops to Afghanistan as part of President Donald Trump’s strategy to end the 16-year-old war, bringing the number of U.S. service members there to more than 14,000, according to American officials.
American troops in Afghanistan have suffered a second insider attack in just days as an Afghan counterpart wounded seven U.S. troops over the weekend. The Taliban again claimed to have infiltrated the U.S. taxpayer-funded Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF).
Taliban jihadists in Afghanistan, in anticipation of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, massacred 25 Afghan policemen in the turbulent southern part of the country during the weekend. They also executed a German aid worker and decapitated her Afghan guard in the nation’s capital of Kabul.
An estimated 300 U.S. Marines have been deployed to the Taliban-stronghold Helmand, considered one of the deadliest provinces of the 16-year-old war for the American-led coalition and their Afghan allies.
Afghanistan, under the presidency of Barack Obama, lost control and influence of nearly half of its war-ravaged territory as armed clashes between the nation’s security forces and the Taliban reached unprecedented levels, reports a congressionally appointed watchdog agency.
The Obama administration, with less than two weeks left in power, has announced it is sending some 300 Marines to Afghanistan’s Helmand province to train, advise and assist Afghan security forces struggling to push the group out of the top opium-producing Helmand.
Afghanistan has reportedly apprehended two boys, age 12 and 14, affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) branch in the region known as the Khorasan Province (IS-KP/ISIL-K).
Afghan police have arrested at least 14 Taliban jihadists carrying out terrorist activities disguised as members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) and using fake identity cards linked to the troops.
The war in Afghanistan is at an “eroding stalemate” after more than 15 years of war, “tipping in the Taliban’s favor,” an unnamed senior administration official told The Washington Post (WaPo).
Nearly 100 members of the corrupt U.S.-funded Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) were executed by the Taliban as they tried to flee a town near the besieged capital of Helmand, a province that has remained an important Taliban stronghold throughout the 15-year-old war and is currently at risk of falling back into the hands of the jihadists, reports Reuters.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nearly two-thirds, or about 200,000, of the number of U.S.-funded Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) needed to keep Afghanistan safe have been deemed nonexistent “ghost” service members who are supposed to be backing American troops on the battlefield, revealed a letter sent to the Pentagon by a watchdog agency.
At least 44 members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), which includes police and military units, have gone missing since January 2015. They disappeared while participating in U.S.-based training programs, including eight since last month alone, Reuters has learned from the Pentagon.
Afghanistan is combating forces of the “devil and darkness” intent on destroying humanity, declared the country’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Abdullah Abdullah as he called for increasing support to the U.S.-backed Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF).
The top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan urged neighboring India to provide more military aid to Afghanistan, a request that marks a change in America’s stance towards Indian involvement in the security sector of the war-torn nation.
The leader of the Islamic State’s branch in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, Hafiz Saeed, has been killed, according to regional Afghan military commander Gen. Mohammad Zaman Waziri.
The expanded military authorization granted by President Barack Obama last month, which allows American troops supporting their Afghan counterparts to offensively target the Taliban rather than waiting for the terrorist group to attack first, is leading to progress on the battlefield, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan told USA Today.
The governor of the southern Afghanistan province of Helmand, the largest in the country, claims to have discovered at least 400 “ghost soldiers” on the province payroll, reports TOLO News.
Afghanistan will use biometrics to verify the existence of every member of the Afghan National Defense and Security Force (ANDSF), vowed the country’s president.
China has reportedly begun to provide military aid to Afghanistan via a Russian plane as the Obama administration plans to further reduce the presence of U.S. troops in the country remain in place.
The Taliban is exploiting the prevalent centuries-old pedophilic custom of bacha bazi, or “playing with boys,” to launch deadly attacks against police in southern Afghanistan, using the officers’ affinity for child sex slaves against them, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Washington and Kabul are clueless as to how many Afghan security troops “actually exist,” are available for duty, and whether they are truly capable of defending their own country, a top government watchdog tells Congress.
Some Afghan security forces trained by the United States are defecting to the Taliban, CNN reports.
The Pentagon has “lost much of its ability” to monitor the effectiveness and capability of the Afghan security forces as the Taliban and other insurgents have stepped up their assaults, stresses the top watchdog for U.S.-funded nation-building projects in Afghanistan.
A U.S. pilot safely ejected before the U.S. F-16 warplane he was flying crashed during an evening takeoff near Bagram Air Field, the largest American military base located north of the Afghan capital Kabul, according to the Pentagon.
