Large-Casualty Attack on a Military Base in Balkh
On Friday, Taliban forces attacked a military base near Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan. The newspaper estimates of the death toll have been steadily rising, and are now around 150 soldiers.
They looked like Afghan Army soldiers returning from the front lines, carrying the bodies of wounded comrades as part of the ruse.
Dressed in military uniforms, a squad of 10 Taliban militants drove in two army Ford Ranger trucks past seven checkpoints. They arrived inside northern Afghanistan’s largest military installation just as hundreds, perhaps thousands, of unarmed soldiers were emerging from Friday Prayers and preparing for lunch.
For the next five hours, the militants went on a rampage, killing at least 140 soldiers and officers in what is emerging as the single deadliest known attack on an Afghan military base in the country’s 16-year war.
‘A Shortage of Coffins’ After Taliban Slaughter Unarmed Soldiers, Mujib Mashal and Najib Rahim, New York Times
Interviewed by NPR, Ahmed Rashid tries to convey the psychological effect.
AHMED RASHID: Well, quite simply it has been a massacre in a whole division of the Afghan army. Casualties are still coming in. We don't know exactly, but it's certainly over 100 dead and a large number wounded. And I think there will be an extreme state of shock within the Afghan army.
Taliban Was Able To Penetrate Afghanistan Military Base Before Attack, NPR
The attack was on a major headquarters and base for government military forces in northern Afghanistan, and a site of American training and assistance programs.
Located in Dehdadi district in Balkh and opened in 2006, originally as a U.S base called Camp Mike Spann, the Afghan National Army’s 209 Shaheen Corps Headquarters is responsible for security of nine northern and north-eastern provinces – provinces that have witnessed major terror attacks over the past three years.
Almost 30,000 army personnel fall under this corps and ensure security of 114 districts in Balkh, Jawzjan, Faryab, Sar-e-Pul, Samangan, Kunduz, Takhar, Badakhshan and Baghlan provinces.
The camp, which for many years was the site of training and advising of Afghan soldiers, was officially handed over to the Afghan defense force in 2014.
209 Shaheen Corps: The Base The Taliban Attacked, Tolo
The scale of the massacre seems to come from the soldiers at the military base being unarmed. Long War Journal points out the practice of disarming Afghan soldiers to protect Americans, leaving them defenseless in the event of this sort of attack.
The incident raised immediate questions over how such a mass killing could occur in a heavily defended headquarters frequented by foreign soldiers.
Confusion, chaos after Taliban breach Afghan base in deadly attack, Reuters
U.S. Navy Captain Bill Salvin, spokesperson for the NATO-led Resolute Support mission, said there were a small number of coalition force advisers on the base at the time of the attack.
"They sheltered in place during the incident. The Afghan Special Forces brought the attack to an end," Salvin said.
Mourning declared after scores of troops die in Afghan base attack, Reuters
Disarmed Afghan troops inside the base were unable to return fire as Taliban fighters went on a killing spree. Afghan commandos from another part of the base were called in to engage the Taliban fighters. Afghan troops inside the base likely were disarmed as the facility is also used by NATO personnel to train local forces. NATO troops have suffered scores of casualties in green-on-blue or insider attacks, where Afghan forces, often aided by the Taliban, turn their weapons on their allies.
Taliban ‘infiltrated’ Afghan Army to carry out deadly attack in north, Bill Roggio, Long War Journal
H.R. McMaster Visits Afghanistan
Around 2010 to 2012, H.R. McMaster led an anti-corruption task force in Afghanistan. He had said, at the time, many of the right things. That American ideas about the corruption problem in Afghanistan often contain a bigotry, for example.
"And it was this lack of understanding that drove, I think, complacency about the problem and drove this simplistic interpretation of corruption that is really bigotry masquerading as cultural sensitivity:this idea that Afghans are corrupt and there’s nothing we can do about it”
Corruption: Lessons from the international mission in Afghanistan, Mark Pyman, Transparency International
That the lasting effects of the very long wars should be recognized, as well as American contribution to the corruption problem.
Perhaps McMaster is reluctant to pin too much blame on Karzai because he thinks the root of Afghanistan’s corruption problem goes deeper, to three decades of “trauma that it’s been through, the legacy of the 1990s civil war . . . [and] the effects of the narcotics trade.” Add to that the unintended consequences of sudden Western attention starting in 2001: “We did exacerbate the problem with lack of transparency and accountability built into the large influx of international assistance that came into a government that lacked mature institutions.”
A Warrior-Scholar Looks at Afghanistan, Hoover Digest, Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster and David Feith
I’ll point out here, about corruption, that I am quoting a Hoover Institution article, about former Hoover Institution fellow H.R. McMaster, which speaks of him in the third person, but gives authorship credit to H.R. McMaster.
McMaster, at the time, had been optimistic about progress. Americans were recognizing their contribution, and would fix it.
Among the clearest signs of progress, McMaster said, may involve reforms to “make sure we’re not part of the problem,” with international aid continuously diverted to the insurgency or organized crime networks.
Officials, McMaster said, “follow ... where our money goes much better than before.”
Five years later, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster has visited Afghanistan. He has told the government there, that they must get their corruption problem under control. The government there has agreed. If they don’t get corruption under control, then the United States will stop sending their country so much money. Or at least will issue threats about it.
U.S President Donald Trump’s national security advisor H.R McMaster has called on the leaders of the National Unity Government (NUG) to take firm steps against endemic corruption in the country.
The U.S expects the NUG to take firm action against corruption, CEO Abdullah Abdullah quoted McMaster on Monday as saying.
“One of the key elements which has weakened the system and our capacities is unfortunately the issue of corruption,” said Abdullah.
McMaster Calls On NUG To Step Up Its Fight Against Corruption, Sayed Sharif Amiri, Tolo
McMaster did not comment on his meetings in Kabul, but a statement from the office of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani emphasized the need to fight corruption within the country’s security forces.
“The Afghan government is committed to fighting corruption in Afghanistan,” the statement said. “We’ve taken practical steps, and we’ve made progress.”
Anti-corruption reforms were a central part of NATO’s work with Afghan security forces over the winter, when battlefield fighting usually subsides. Some Afghan commanders’ practice of inflating the number of their forces, to siphon off the salaries of “ghost soldiers,” hobbled military operations last year when local units turned out to have fewer numbers than planners expected.
Similarly, other commanders’ practice of selling off supplies, such as fuel and ammunition, undermined the morale of front-line soldiers, who often abandoned their posts and ceded territory to the Taliban.
Top Trump security adviser holds talks in Afghanistan, E.B. Boyd, Stars and Stripes
Atta Muhammad Noor to Run for President?
Thomas Ruttig, at Afghanistan Analysts Network, looks at the possibility that Atta Muhammad Noor, strongman governor of Balkh, will run for president. Another possibility is that he would maneuver for the first vice president position under Ashraf Ghani. Atta has recently shifted affiliation, from Abdullah Abdullah, to Ghani. Jamiat faction internal politics are involved here.
This year’s Nawruz, the Persian New Year on 21 March 2017, also heralded the beginning of the positioning for Afghanistan’s next presidential election, although due only in two years’ time. Atta Muhammad Nur, the powerful governor of Balkh province, used the popular holiday to announce that he will run in 2019. He kept open, however, whether that will be for president or vice-president. Atta also revived the struggle for the leadership of the Jamiat-e Islami party, thereby challenging its most senior representative in the current government, Chief Executive Dr Abdullah Abdullah.
“Atta for President” Again? The struggle for the Afghan presidency and Jamiat’s leadership, Thomas Ruttig, Afghanistan Analysts Network
Ahmad Zia Massoud Sacked
Ashraf Ghani has sacked Ahmad Zia Massoud as a high level adviser. The statement from Atta Muhammad Nur, a rival of Ahmad Zia Massoud for power within Jamiat, seems pretty pleased about this.
In a statement released following the confirmation of the dismissal of Massoud, Noor raised questions regarding the stance of Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, emphasizing that Massoud is the deputy chief of Jamiat-e-Islami which played a key role in bring him to power.
Noor further added that Abdullah should clarify his stance as well as he should explain on how he is going to defend from the rights of the people.
Noor reacts at dismissal of Ahmad Zia Massoud by President Ghani, Khaama Press
Multinational Talks Bring No Specific Progress
A Russian-hosted multinational meeting about peace in Afghanistan, including Afghanistan, China, Iran, Pakistan, India, and other central Asian states, without Taliban participation, has failed to bring any specific progress.
The United States is suspicious of these efforts.
The United States was also invited to the Moscow talks, but Washington declined, saying it had not been informed of the agenda beforehand and was unclear about the meeting's motives.
US Wary of Russian Role in Afghanistan as Moscow Holds Talks, Cindy Saine and Ayaz Gul, Voice of America
I would be with the Barnett Rubin quote here. Trying to bring the Taliban into a regional political solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, is what should be done.
The United States — which has failed repeatedly to goad the Taliban into talks — declined to participate, saying it had not been consulted in advance.
Although the Russian initiative is seen as a long shot, analysts said it could emerge as a counterweight to U.S. influence in Afghanistan.
“When we had increasing contacts with the Taliban, Russia was very suspicious, and now that they are, we don’t like it,” said Barnett Rubin, a former State Department official in Afghanistan during the Obama administration who is now associate director of the Center on International Cooperation at New York University.
“For whatever motive, [Russia] is doing what should be done, which is trying to bring the Taliban into a regional political solution to the conflict in Afghanistan.”
Why Russia might be working with its Cold War enemy, the Taliban, Maija Liuhto and Shashank Bengali, Los Angeles Times
