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Harrowing footage shows Ajmal Amani, 41, running at officers and being shot in the stomach and leg at the residential hotel where he lived in a city-rented room in San Francisco

Moment Afghan interpreter who suffered PTSD after serving with US special forces is shot and killed

November 25, 2021/0 Comments/in Special Forces/by leadlive73

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A former Afghan interpreter who suffered from PTSD after serving with US special forces has been shot dead after charging at cops with a six-inch kitchen knife.

Harrowing footage shows Ajmal Amani, 41, running at officers and being shot four times in the stomach and leg before slumping to the floor inside the narrow corridor of the residential hotel where he lived in a city-rented room in San Francisco.

Amani had been shot several times during his five years of service with the Navy SEALs in his homeland and had suffered from PTSD as a result, according to his former lawyer and case manager.

The interpreter, who came to the US on a visa in 2014, had been ordered to complete mental health treatment after prior criminal charges, including assault with a deadly weapon in 2019 for allegedly slashing a city park ranger with a box cutter.

Police were called to the hotel on Friday morning after reports that a man was screaming and yelling and had a knife. Amani’s case manager also called 911 to report that a co-worker said Amani was having ‘a really bad episode.’

Harrowing footage shows Ajmal Amani, 41, running at officers and being shot in the stomach and leg at the residential hotel where he lived in a city-rented room in San Francisco

Amani had been shot several times during his five years of service with the US Army in his homeland and had suffered from PTSD as a result, according to his former lawyer and case manager (pictured: an undated photo showing Amani standing in front of a US military vehicle)

Harrowing footage shows Amani after he was shot lying in the corridor

On Wednesday, police released hotel surveillance video and footage from officers’ body cameras.

They show Amani holding and gesturing with the knife, confronting two people, including someone who is fending him off with a broom, then walking past other people into a room.

When two officers arrive, the man with the broom tells them that Amani had threatened to kill him.

An officer tells the radio dispatcher that they can hear Amani screaming.

According to body camera video, the officers remain in the corridor and try to talk to Amani, who is in a room.

Amani swears and tells them to leave him alone and one officer says ‘nobody wants to hurt you.’

Less than a minute later, Amani charges down the hallway and is shot after an officer shouts: ‘Stay there! Stay there!’

Police said Amani was holding a knife with a 6-inch blade.

He was shot four times with a handgun and three times with bean-bag projectiles.

As Amani lay on the ground, still moving, more officers arrived.

They waited several minutes to cautiously approach him, then handcuffed him and used CPR and a tourniquet on him before paramedics arrived.

At a virtual town hall meeting where the video was released, Police Chief Bill Scott said his department and prosecutors were investigating the shooting.

Scott said he had personally offered condolences to Amani’s family.

He said that his officers received training on how to de-escalate volatile situations, keep their distance, and take time to avoid using force.

He added that ‘sometimes that works out with great outcomes, and sometimes the situation dictates other measures.’

Scott Grant, a deputy public defender who represented Amani, said he was ‘utterly devastated’ by his death.

Grant said Amani ‘suffered incredible trauma’ and violence during his time with US special forces.

‘He suffered some of the most horrific trauma anyone could have gone through,’ Grant told the SF Standard.

Amani running at cops with a blade at the Covered Wagon Hotel at 917 Folsom St., a residential hotel in South of Market

Amani lying on the floor after he was shot by cops Friday

In November 2019, Amani was arrested after crashing a car near Seventh Street off-ramp of Highway 80 in San Francisco.

He was accused of using a boxcutter to slash a city park ranger who stopped at the scene and tried to pull him from the wreckage, Grant said.

Grant said that Amani was suffering a ‘clear mental health episode.’

The interpreter was charged with attempted murder, among others in connection with the incident.

However, a judge dismissed the attempted murder charge early on and remaining assault charges were dropped after Amani completed a ‘mental health diversion’ order in August.

‘The amount of work and transformation that he was able to do was unmatched,’ Grant told the Standard. ‘He was an inspiration in how much he accomplished.’

Afterward completing the mental health treatment Amani had been living at the hotel where he was killed on Friday.

‘His tragic death is a failure of our systems of government here to support somebody who risked his life to support this country,’ Grant told KTVU-TV.

Tony Montoya, president of the San Francisco Police Officers, said his union was providing support to the officers involved.

‘This is a tragic incident,’ Montoya said. ‘You not only have to look at the person who was shot but the trauma on the…

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Heston Russell takes aim at Australia's Afghan departure and public release of Brereton Report – The West Australian

November 14, 2021/0 Comments/in Special Forces/by leadlive73

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Heston Russell takes aim at Australia’s Afghan departure and public release of Brereton Report The West Australian

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A Stranded Afghan Interpreter and the Soldiers Who Would Not Let Go

August 26, 2021/0 Comments/in Special Forces/by leadlive73

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The Americans called him “Mikey,” and as an interpreter for the Special Forces he did not just bridge language gaps. He did everything from easing negotiations with local Afghans loyal to the Taliban to warning a convoy away from an ambush.

“Mikey wasn’t just a regular interpreter,” recalls Sgt. First Class Joseph Torres, a Texan who served in the Special Forces. “He was our lifeline. He went everywhere we went on the most remote and dangerous missions. It was because of him that we returned home alive after deployments.”

But the day after Kabul fell to the Taliban, the 34-year-old Afghan was on his own.

Determined to get out of Afghanistan, he was making a desperate run to the airport with his wife and two young sons when they were caught in gunfire amid the crush of people who had gathered there to escape. His wife and one son, 6, were both shot in the foot.

As he carried the bloodied and screaming child in search of a hospital, Mikey says, he flashed back to his time on the battlefield with American forces.

“I kept thinking, after everything I did for the Americans,” he said. “After all my hard work and risking my life, now this is what happens to my family? They are leaving us to die here.”

Mikey — who is being identified by his American nickname only for safety reasons — is one of tens of thousands of Afghans who worked for the United States and have applications pending for expedited visas allowing them to resettle in America. President Biden has pledged that Afghan allies will be welcomed to “their new homes” and called the situation on the ground “heartbreaking.”

But the evacuation of U.S. citizens and green-card holders remains the immediate priority of the military operation underway at the Kabul airport. That means that for many Afghans who worked with the United States, there is little to do but wait — and try to keep out of the sights of the Taliban.

Mikey worked as an interpreter for the Special Forces from 2009 to 2012 in Kandahar, and from 2015 to 2017 in Kabul. He was once so badly wounded in an explosion that he had to be airlifted to a field hospital.

The night his wife and son were shot, Mikey got them into a hospital and then went into hiding. Preferring rooms without windows, he switched locations four times in one week.

He was waiting for the U.S. government to give him an evacuation plan. He was waiting for the approval of his visa application.

And he was waiting for the Taliban to find him.

In interviews from his bunkers in Kabul as events unfolded over the past week, Mikey talked about the ordeal of trying to keep himself alive and his family safe in the chaos left behind by the U.S. exit from Afghanistan. With no word from the U.S. government about when or how he might get out, he realized that the bonds he had forged with U.S. soldiers might offer his only hope for safe passage.

That is where Sergeant Torres, who now lives in Pecos, Tex., came in.

He had worked with Mikey on multiple deployments, and now he had a new battle: leading a global operation to get him out.

To coordinate those efforts, Sergeant Torres and a group of about 20 former and current members of the military formed a WhatsApp chat group and an email thread. They reached out to military and State Department contacts, along with members of Congress, to try to get Mikey and his family onto a military evacuation plane.

They say they understand why U.S. citizens are getting priority when it comes to evacuations. The outrage is over the lack of a clear plan for all those Afghans who worked side by side with the Americans, who may have targets on their backs now that the Taliban is in control.

“It’s infuriating,” Sergeant Torres said. “My heart breaks for everyone who doesn’t have the support Mikey has.”

It was not the case that Mikey tried to get out of Afghanistan only when the danger became clear.

He started his special visa application in 2012, when he was in Kandahar with the military. He had his interview, one of the final steps in the process, in November 2018 when he worked at Camp Duskin in Kabul. He is still waiting for medical tests and approval. Emails he has sent to follow up on his application have gone unanswered.

Across the United States, members of the armed forces are leading their own campaigns to pressure the Biden administration to scale up the evacuation of Afghans who worked as their interpreters. They have taken to social media and created fund-raising campaigns such as “Help Our Interpreters.”

Military interpreters are among the most vulnerable of Afghan allies. The nature of their work required that they accompany military personnel in the battlefield and be present during interactions with locals. If residents of the areas where they worked were hostile to Americans, the interpreters could be easily identified for the Taliban.

Mikey was a teenager in Kabul when the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001. In high…

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Taliban LIVE: Afghan resistance movement growing as groups take part in military training | World | News

August 24, 2021/0 Comments/in Special Forces/by leadlive73

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There is a danger that not all Irish citizens will be evacuated before the deadline on August 31, according to Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney.

Mr Coveney said: “I don’t want to raise expectations unrealistically, that everybody will get out as a result of this.

“Even beyond the 31st of this month, into September, we will continue to work with Irish citizens if they’re in Kabul.

“Everybody knows, unless President Biden makes a decision today to work with partners to extend their presence there beyond the 31st, everybody knows we’re talking about days not weeks.”

Ten Irish citizens have already been evacuated with the assistance of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the embassy in Abu Dhabi.

Those seeking evacuation have been described as mainly family groups.

There is currently 36 Irish citizens and their family members still in Afghanistan.

Mr Coveney said: “The remaining are 24 Irish citizens and 12 non-Irish family members that have visas to come to Ireland.

“They are predominantly Afghan-Irish, if you like.

“They’re Irish citizens and we’re absolutely committed to them.”

He added that evacuating them is more complicated, because they need to leave as family units.

He also said that “because they are Afghan as well as Irish, it is more difficult get them through the crowd and into the airport”.

“We have places on planes for all of these 36 people.”

Mr Coveney said sending the Irish team to Kabul is not without risk, but he told Newstalk: “On balance, this is the right thing to do.”

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Canadian special forces may be used to rescue Afghan interpreters, support staff from Kabul: Sajjan

August 22, 2021/0 Comments/in Special Forces/by leadlive73

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A Canadian Armed Forces Medic assists Afghan refugees who supported Canada’s mission in Afghanistan disembarking a CC-150 Polaris aircraft at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada August 13, 2021.

CPL RACHAEL ALLEN/DND/Reuters

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says Canadian special forces have been given the “flexibility” to rescue Canadians and former Afghan support staff and bring them to the safety of the Hamid Karzai airport in Kabul for evacuation flights to Canada.

The United States has come under criticism for refusing to send U.S. troops outside the security of the airport perimeter even though British and French special forces have carried out rescue missions in Kabul.

The British and French put their special forces into action because of reports of Taliban hunting down former Afghan interpreters and fixers. Afghans attempting to flee have also faced difficulty getting through a network of Taliban checkpoints lining the route to the airport.

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At a news conference Sunday, Mr. Sajjan said that Canadian special forces are empowered to do what is necessary to get people safely to the airport.

“For obvious reasons, I cannot divulge the situation of exactly what our troops are doing. But one thing I can say is that they have all the flexibility to be able make the appropriate decisions so they can take actions,” he said.

Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino also told the same news conference that “all of our forces have the full operational discretion to take whatever actions are necessary to get as many people into the airport on to those flights.”

Speaking at a campaign event in Miramichi, N.B., Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Defence Minister briefed him several days ago on potential operational measures to get as many people as possible out of Afghanistan.

“I don’t want to go into details, operational details right now. But I can assure you we have given the authorizations for the folks on the ground to make the right decisions to help as many people as possible given the risks,” he said.

The Pentagon has said the 5,200 U.S. forces on the ground in Afghanistan are not authorized to go outside the perimeter of the airport. Hundreds of desperate Afghans have stormed the terminal and tarmac of the facility, hoping to catch evacuation flights out.

Mr. Sajjan said there have been “many, many opportunities where people in the Canadian Armed Forces have been able to get Canadian citizens and Afghan nationals to safety.

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“Ever single time they took the opportunity, they have weighed the risk.”

A senior government official said the minister was referring to Canadian special forces efforts at the airport and not any rescue mission in the capital where armed Taliban militants are patrolling the streets. The Globe is not identifying the official, who was not authorized to discuss operation details.

Pressed on the risk and the type of mounting rescue operations in Kabul, such as using helicopters or buses, Mr. Sajjan said that he is “not discounting anything.”

“I have to be very careful what I say about what they are doing, even the possibility of doing something because you never know when an opportunity may come up and an action that they have to take,” he said.

Not Left Behind, a group of Canadian veterans and volunteers trying to get former Afghan interpreters and support staff out of Afghanistan, has been particularly critical of Canada’s handling of the evacuation operations.

“While other countries have taken steps to help their citizens safely travel to the Kabul airport, Canadian applicants have been told to fend for themselves,” the group said in a statement Sunday. “We need to help Afghans safely reach the Kabul airport.”

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Chaos persists outside Kabul airport The Associated Press

The government announced Sunday that just over 1,100 people have been airlifted out of Kabul with 121 flown out Saturday aboard Canadian Forces Globemaster aircraft.

Although there have been complaints from people going to the airport that they have not been able to find any Canadian Forces personnel, Mr. Sajjan insisted soldiers are present at all the entry points.

Mr. Mendicino acknowledged the significant challenges of exiting the country facing expatriates and former Afghan interpreters and fixers who worked for Canada. Taliban checkpoints on the road to Kabul’s airport “makes getting this done perilous.”

He urged people in safe houses to wait until they received either a phone call or text to proceed to the airport.

After the fall of Kabul…

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Why the Afghan Military Collapsed So Quickly

August 14, 2021/0 Comments/in Special Forces/by leadlive73

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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The surrenders seem to be happening as fast as the Taliban can travel.

In the past several days, the Afghan security forces have collapsed in more than 15 cities under the pressure of a Taliban advance that began in May. On Friday, officials confirmed that those included two of the country’s most important provincial capitals: Kandahar and Herat.

The swift offensive has resulted in mass surrenders, captured helicopters and millions of dollars of American-supplied equipment paraded by the Taliban on grainy cellphone videos. In some cities, heavy fighting had been underway for weeks on their outskirts, but the Taliban ultimately overtook their defensive lines and then walked in with little or no resistance.

This implosion comes despite the United States having poured more than $83 billion in weapons, equipment and training into the country’s security forces over two decades.

Building the Afghan security apparatus was one of the key parts of the Obama administration’s strategy as it sought to find a way to hand over security and leave nearly a decade ago. These efforts produced an army modeled in the image of the United States’ military, an Afghan institution that was supposed to outlast the American war.

But it will likely be gone before the United States is.

While the future of Afghanistan seems more and more uncertain, one thing is becoming exceedingly clear: The United States’ 20-year endeavor to rebuild Afghanistan’s military into a robust and independent fighting force has failed, and that failure is now playing out in real time as the country slips into Taliban control.

How the Afghan military came to disintegrate first became apparent not last week but months ago in an accumulation of losses that started even before President Biden’s announcement that the United States would withdraw by Sept. 11.

It began with individual outposts in rural areas where starving and ammunition-depleted soldiers and police units were surrounded by Taliban fighters and promised safe passage if they surrendered and left behind their equipment, slowly giving the insurgents more and more control of roads, then entire districts. As positions collapsed, the complaint was almost always the same: There was no air support or they had run out of supplies and food.

But even before that, the systemic weaknesses of the Afghan security forces — which on paper numbered somewhere around 300,000 people, but in recent days have totaled around just one-sixth of that, according to U.S. officials — were apparent. These shortfalls can be traced to numerous issues that sprung from the West’s insistence on building a fully modern military with all the logistical and supply complexities one requires, and which has proved unsustainable without the United States and its NATO allies.

Soldiers and policemen have expressed ever-deeper resentment of the Afghan leadership. Officials often turned a blind eye to what was happening, knowing full well that the Afghan forces’ real manpower count was far lower than what was on the books, skewed by corruption and secrecy that they quietly accepted.

And when the Taliban started building momentum after the United States’ announcement of withdrawal, it only increased the belief that fighting in the security forces — fighting for President Ashraf Ghani’s government — wasn’t worth dying for. In interview after interview, soldiers and police officers described moments of despair and feelings of abandonment.

On one frontline in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar last week, the Afghan security forces’ seeming inability to fend off the Taliban’s devastating offensive came down to potatoes.

After weeks of fighting, one cardboard box full of slimy potatoes was supposed to pass as a police unit’s daily rations. They hadn’t received anything other than spuds in various forms in several days, and their hunger and fatigue were wearing them down.

“These French fries are not going to hold these front lines!” a police officer yelled, disgusted by the lack of support they were receiving in the country’s second-largest city.

By Thursday, this front line collapsed, and Kandahar was in Taliban control by Friday morning.

Afghan troops were then consolidated to defend Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals in recent weeks as the Taliban pivoted from attacking rural areas to targeting cities. But that strategy proved futile as the insurgent fighters overran city after city, capturing around half of Afghanistan’s provincial capitals in a week, and encircling Kabul.

“They’re just trying to finish us off,” said Abdulhai, 45, a police chief who was holding Kandahar’s northern front line last week.

The Afghan security forces have suffered well over 60,000 deaths since 2001. But Abdulhai was not talking about the Taliban, but rather his own government, which he believed was so inept that it had to be part of a broader plan to cede territory to the Taliban.

The months of…

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US sending 3K troops for partial Afghan embassy evacuation

August 12, 2021/0 Comments/in Special Forces/by leadlive73

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Just weeks before the U.S. is scheduled to end its war in Afghanistan, the Biden administration is rushing 3,000 fresh troops to the Kabul airport to help with a partial evacuation of the U.S. Embassy. The move highlights the stunning speed of a Taliban takeover of much of the country, including their capture on Thursday of Kandahar, the second-largest city and the birthplace of the Taliban movement.

The State Department said the embassy will continue functioning, but Thursday’s dramatic decision to bring in thousands of additional U.S. troops is a sign of waning confidence in the Afghan government’s ability to hold off the Taliban surge. The announcement came just hours after the Taliban captured the western city of Herat as well as Ghazni, a strategic provincial capital south of Kabul. The advance, and the partial U.S. Embassy evacuation, increasingly isolate the nation’s capital, home to millions of Afghans.

“This is not abandonment. This is not an evacuation. This is not a wholesale withdrawal,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said. “What this is is a reduction in the size of our civilian footprint.”

Price rejected the idea that Thursday’s moves sent encouraging signals to an already emboldened Taliban, or demoralizing ones to frightened Afghan civilians. “The message we are sending to the people of Afghanistan is one of enduring partnership,” Price insisted.

President Joe Biden, who has remained adamant about ending the 19-year U.S. mission in Afghanistan at the end of this month despite the Taliban sweep, conferred with senior national security officials overnight, then gave the order for the additional temporary troops Thursday morning.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday. The U.S. also warned Taliban officials directly that the U.S. would respond if the Taliban attacked Americans during the temporary U.S. military deployments.

Britain’s ministry of defense said Thursday that it will send around 600 troops to Afghanistan on a short-term basis to help U.K. nationals leave the country. And Canadian special forces will deploy to Afghanistan to help Canadian staff leave Kabul, a source familiar with the plan told The Associated Press. That official, who was not authorized to talk publicly about the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity, did not say how many special forces would be sent.

The Pentagon’s chief spokesman, John Kirby, said that in addition to sending three infantry battalions — two from the Marine Corps and one from the Army — to the airport, the Pentagon will dispatch 3,500 to 4,000 troops from a combat brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division to Kuwait to act as a reserve force. He said they will be on standby “in case we need even more” than the 3,000 going to Kabul.

Also, about 1,000 Army and Air Force troops, including military police and medical personnel, will be sent to Qatar in coming days to support a State Department effort to accelerate its processing of Special Immigrant Visa applications from Afghans who once worked for the U.S. government and feel threated by the Taliban, Kirby said.

The 3,000 troops who are to arrive at the Kabul airport in the next day or two, Kirby said, are to assist with security at the airport and to help process the departure of embassy personnel — not to get involved in the Afghan government’s war with the Taliban. Biden decided in April to end U.S. military involvement in the war, and the withdrawal is scheduled to be complete by Aug. 31.

The U.S. had already withdrawn most of its troops, but had kept about 650 troops in Afghanistan to support U.S. diplomatic security, including at the airport.

Kirby said the influx of fresh troops does not mean the U.S. is reentering combat with the Taliban.

“This is a temporary mission with a narrow focus,” he told reporters at the Pentagon.

The viability of the U.S.-trained Afghan army, however, is looking increasingly dim. A new military assessment says Kabul could come under Taliban pressure as soon as September and, if current trends hold, the country could fall to the Taliban within a few months.

Price, the State Department spokesman, said diplomatic work will continue at the Kabul embassy.

“Our first responsibility has always been protecting the safety and the security of our citizens serving in Afghanistan, and around the world,” Price said at a briefing, calling the the speed of the Taliban advance and resulting instability “of grave concern.”

Shortly before Price’s announcement, the embassy in Kabul urged U.S. citizens to leave immediately — reiterating a warning it first issued Saturday.

The latest drawdown will further limit the ability of the embassy to conduct business, although Price maintained it would still be able to function. Nonessential personal had already been withdrawn from the embassy in April after Biden’s withdrawal announcement and it was…

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White House insists Afghan forces ‘have what they need’ to battle surging Taliban

August 11, 2021/0 Comments/in Special Forces/by leadlive73

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The White House insisted Wednesday that Afghan forces “have what they need” to battle the Taliban, as the U.S. assesses that the capital of Afghanistan could fall within the next 90 days.

The Taliban seized three more Afghan provincial capitals and a local army headquarters on Wednesday, attaining control of two-thirds of the nation. The sources said the intelligence regarding Kabul’s security has been dire for some time.

AFGHANISTAN CAPITAL KABUL COULD FALL TO TALIBAN WITHIN 90 DAYS, US ASSESSES

Pentagon officials told Fox News that the intelligence community updated its assessment of Afghanistan after the Taliban conquered nine provincial capitals in recent days.

A CIA assessment months ago said Kabul could fall in six months, however, officials say, at this point that prediction has been cut in half.

But the White House Wednesday maintained that the U.S. is cooperating with Afghan forces, implementing its “train, advise and assist approach.”

“We are continuing and we will continue to provide close air support,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday.

“Ultimately, Afghan National Defense and Security Forces have equipment, numbers and training to fight back,” Psaki continued. “They have what they need.”

She added: “What they need to determine is if they have the political will to fight back, and if they have the ability to unite as leaders to fight back, and that is really where it stands at this point.”

TALIBAN AMBUSHES AND KILLS AFGHAN GOVERNMENT MEDIA OFFICIAL

President Biden has committed to withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Aug. 31, but Psaki maintained that he has made extensive requests for assistance and humanitarian assistance for those in Afghanistan through his budget proposals.

“Our assistance, our partnership, does not end,” Psaki said.

As for the assessment that Kabul could fall within 90 days, Psaki said the White House is “closely watching the deteriorating security” in the region, and working to coordinate air strikes “with and in support of Afghan forces.”

“Afghan leaders need to come together, and the future of the country is on their shoulders,” Psaki said, adding that the Taliban, on the other hand, needs to “make an assessment of what they want their role to be in the international community.”

Psaki, though, said the White House is taking the risk “seriously,” and is watching it “closely.”

Meanwhile, the Taliban’s spiritual home of Kandahar, in southern part of the country, appears to be one of the next provincial capitals in danger of falling, and the the limited U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan by drones, B-52 bombers and AC-130 gunships in recent days have been concentrated there, in what officials call a last-ditch attempt to keep the city from falling to the Taliban.

TALIBAN CAPTURE 6 AFGHAN CITIES, IN AREAS WHERE US AIRSTRIKES ARE RARE

Officials also told Fox News that Afghan special forces are concentrated in the south defending Kandahar and are the only ones qualified to call in American airstrikes.

At this point, Afghan special forces are in short supply in northern Afghanistan – one of the reasons why there have been so few U.S. airstrikes there. But U.S. officials said dropping bombs on crowded provincial capitals in the north already seized by the Taliban increases the risk of civilian casualties.

Since the U.S. military left Bagram Air Base, it must now fly from bases in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates – an eight-hour trip that leaves very little time overhead in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon’s authority to carry out airstrikes in Afghanistan ends on Aug. 31, when the U.S. military withdrawal will be complete, officials say. After that date, the U.S. military will have to get the White House to approve future airstrikes or get issued a new set of authorities from the commander in chief.

Last week, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani blamed the United States’ “sudden” decision to withdraw its troops for the rapid collapse of security in the country.

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Ghani told the Afghan parliament that “the last three months” have been an “unexpected situation.”

He added, though, that the government had a U.S.-backed security plan to bring the situation under control within six months as peace talks between the government and Taliban negotiators continue to stall, Reuters reported.

The Biden administration has said it will continue to support the Afghanistan military financially and logistically, including with contractors helping maintain the government’s air force, from outside Afghanistan, after the withdrawal.

Fox News’ Rich Edson and Lucas Tomlinson contributed to this report.

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Fighting rages in centre of major Afghan city Kunduz

Taliban seize three more Afghan provincial capitals in northern blitz

August 8, 2021/0 Comments/in Special Forces/by leadlive73

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Afghan forces were fighting the Taliban in northern city Kunduz, a day after the insurgents took their second provincial capital – Copyright AFP/File STR

The Taliban tightened the noose around northern Afghanistan Sunday, capturing three more provincial capitals as they take their fight to the cities after seizing much of the countryside in recent months.

The insurgents have snatched up five provincial capitals in Afghanistan since Friday in a lightning offensive that appears to have overwhelmed government forces.

Kunduz, Sar-e-Pul and Taloqan in the north fell within hours of each other Sunday, lawmakers, security sources and residents in the cities confirmed.

In Kunduz, one resident described the city as being enveloped in “total chaos”.

“After some fierce fighting, the mujahideen, with the grace of God, captured the capital of Kunduz,” the Taliban said in a statement Sunday afternoon.

“The mujahideen also captured Sar-e-Pul city, the government buildings and all the installations there.”

The insurgents said on Twitter on Sunday evening that they had also taken Taloqan, the capital of Takhar province.

Parwina Azimi, a women’s rights activist in Sar-e-Pul, told AFP by phone that government officials and the remaining forces had retreated to an army barracks about three kilometres (two miles) from the city.

The Taliban had the compound “surrounded”, said Mohammad Hussein Mujahidzada, a member of the provincial council.

Taloqan was the next to go Sunday, with resident Zabihullah Hamidi telling AFP by phone that he saw security forces and officials leave the city in a convoy of vehicles.

“We retreated from the city this afternoon, after the government failed to send help,” a security source told AFP.

“The city is unfortunately fully in Taliban hands.”

– Perennial target –

Kunduz is the most significant Taliban gain since the insurgents launched an offensive in May as foreign forces began the final stages of their withdrawal.

It has been a perennial target for the Taliban, who briefly overran the city in 2015 and again in 2016 but never managed to hold it for long.

The ministry of defence said government forces were fighting to retake key installations.

“The commando forces have launched a clearing operation. Some areas, including the national radio and TV buildings, have been cleared of the terrorist Taliban,” it said.

Spokesman Mirwais Stanikzai said later that reinforcements including special forces had been deployed to Sar-e-Pul and Sheberghan.

“These cities that the Taliban want to capture will soon become their graveyards,” he added.

Kabul’s ability to hold the north may prove crucial to the government’s long-term survival.

Northern Afghanistan has long been considered an anti-Taliban stronghold that saw some of the stiffest resistance to militant rule in the 1990s.

The region remains home to several militias and is also a fertile recruiting ground for the country’s armed forces.

“The capture of Kunduz is quite significant because it will free up a large number of Taliban forces who might then be mobilised in other parts of the north,” said Ibraheem Thurial, a consultant for International Crisis Group.

Vivid footage of the fighting was posted on social media over the weekend, including what appeared to be large numbers of prisoners being freed from jails in captured cities.

The Taliban frequently target prisons to release incarcerated fighters to replenish their ranks.

On Friday, the insurgents seized their first provincial capital, Zaranj in southwestern Nimroz on the border with Iran, and followed it up by taking Sheberghan in northern Jawzjan province the next day.

– US air strikes –

Fighting was also reported on the outskirts of Herat in the west, and Lashkar Gah and Kandahar in the south.

The pace of Taliban advances has caught government forces flatfooted, but they won some respite late Saturday after US warplanes bombed Taliban positions in Sheberghan.

“US forces have conducted several air strikes in defence of our Afghan partners in recent days,” Major Nicole Ferrara, a Central Command spokesperson, told AFP in Washington.

Sheberghan is the stronghold of notorious Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, whose militiamen and government forces were reportedly retreating east to Mazar-i-Sharif in Balkh province.

Dostum has overseen one of the largest militias in the north and garnered a fearsome reputation fighting the Taliban in the 1990s — along with accusations his forces massacred thousands of insurgent prisoners of war.

A retreat of his fighters dents the government’s recent hopes that militias could help the overstretched military.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have been displaced by the recent fighting, and on Saturday, 12 people were killed when their bus was struck by a roadside bomb as they tried to flee Gardez in Paktia province.

“I lost my mother, father, two brothers, two sisters-in-law and other members of the…

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