Afghan National Army soldiers practice the prone shooting position during a class given by coalition force members on the fundamentals of marksmanship in Farah province, Feb. 14, 2013. (U.S. Marine Corps/Sgt. Chadwick de Bree)
Members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces frequently robbed and abused native Afghan personnel hired under three maintenance and operations contracts at ANDSF military bases, according to an alarming new report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, confiscating a total of $780,000 in property and equipment and often detaining workers at gunpoint.
More disturbingly, the Resolute Support mission's Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan "has not issued any financial penalties against the ANDSF" for the mistreatment of its O&M because withholding funds, according to the SIGAR report "harms ANDSF forces more than it would tend to change behavior" of corrupt security forces.
The most elite U.S.-trained forces in Afghanistan suffered a devastating defeat to the Taliban in what's often referred to as the country's "safest district" over the weekend, in yet another sign the war is a lost cause.
Taliban fighters massacred more than 57 Afghan military personnel and police officers in four separate attacks across northern Afghanistan, Afghan officials told the New York Times on Monday, the latest in a series of devastating and demoralizing attacks on security forces there.
The Taliban celebrated the conclusion of a three-day ceasefire with Afghanistan's security forces on Wednesday by launching a brutal attack against an Afghan military base in the western part of the country, killing 30 soldiers and occupying the installation, officials told Reuters.
The Army plans on deploying the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team and 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Fort Carson, Colorado-based 4th Infantry Division to Afghanistan this coming spring, the branch announced in two separatestatements on Dec. 14.
For years, military officials and lawmakers have acknowledged and tried to crack down on, sexual abuse of young boys by Afghanistan’s security forces. But a new Pentagon inspector general audit reveals that the well-known problem will require more than legislative gymnastics to address: U.S. Forces-Afghanistan only identified 16 allegations involving Afghan government officials between 2010 and 2016 — and barely did anything about them.
