Meanwhile In Afghanistan

[Panzermann]

I could not find an old AFG thread so I made a new one for what is going on in Afghanistan after the "withdrawal".

 

While all look at Syria and other places the Taliban claim to have taken Kunduz.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/29/world/asia/taliban-fighters-enter-City-of-kunduz-in-northern-afghanistan.html

 

 

the taliban have money for fancy foil wrapped cars: https://mobile.twitter.com/Terror_Monitor/status/648413701498781696

 

---

 

about three weeks ago:

Bastion on the brink: American Special Forces defend former British HQ as Taliban close in - and Afghan army pays the rebels not to attack (Daily Mail)

Edited September 28, 2015 by Panzermann

[JasonJ]

China has had a hand in Afghanistan in the last few years.

 

Article about US and China collaboration although nothing specific. Pakistan is seen as partly to blame. Although, of course, China is one of Pakistan's few buddies.

 

http://thediplomat.com/2015/09/is-the-world-paying-attention-to-afghanistan-anymore/

[WRW]

I have worked in Kunduz - liked the people but not the place. my understanding was that the threat there was from bandit type worlords not standard Talib types.

 

I put a lot of time and effort into there - now I assume all gone. I hope the locals I worked with have managed to get out or develope an extremely low profile.

[Panzermann]

I have worked in Kunduz - liked the people but not the place. my understanding was that the threat there was from bandit type worlords not standard Talib types.

 

I put a lot of time and effort into there - now I assume all gone. I hope the locals I worked with have managed to get out or develope an extremely low profile.

Sad to see one's work and effort wasted. And bad for the afghans that are fed up with the struggles and violence and just want to live.

 

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Meanwhile afghan MPs sharpen their knives:

 

Lawmakers demand president resigns as Afghan

battle rages

Wed Sep 30, 2015 12:54pm IST

 

By Mirwais Harooni and Hamid Shalizi

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan lawmakers called on

President Ashraf Ghani to resign on Wednesday over

his government's "shameful" handling of the battle

for Kunduz, the northern city which has fallen to

Taliban insurgents in their biggest victory so far in 14

years of war.

The Islamist militants seized control of Kunduz after

an audacious assault on the city on Monday, and the

promised counter-offensive from Afghan forces has

yet to materialise.

Instead, thousands of exhausted Afghan police and

soldiers are holed up at the city's airport waiting for

reinforcements from other parts of the country.

"It is shameful how they (the government) have dealt

with the situation in Kunduz," said Iqbal Safi, a

member of parliament from Kapisa province, during a

televised session of parliament.

"Ghani and Abdullah must step down," he added,

referring to Ghani's Chief Executive Abdullah

Abdullah.

Kunduz was the last city to fall when the Taliban fell

in 2001, and, in the biggest blow to Ghani since he

came to power a year ago, it has become the first

major city to be retaken by the insurgency since

then.

Other lawmakers echoed Safi's demands in a chaotic

session, with parliamentarians shouting and calling

for a gathering of elders to begin the process of

impeachment.

Ghani's first year in office has been clouded by

political infighting and escalating violence around the

country, with the United Nations recording almost

5,000 civilian casualties in the first half of the year.

Sayed Zafar Hashemi, Ghani's deputy spokesman,

said it was parliamentarians' right to protest.

"For the president, the first priorities are the safety of

the citizens in Kunduz and clearing the area of

terrorists."

He said Afghan troops were making progress, and

Ghani had ordered an investigation into how Kunduz

fell so quickly.

TROOPS GROWING WEARY

Around 5,000 Afghan troops were gathered at Kunduz

airport on Wednesday after fighting there raged late

into the night, an Afghan security official said, and

Taliban fighters were driven back with the help a

second U.S. air strike.

However, the morale of Afghan troops was flagging

after two days of continuous fighting, a district

official said.

"We still have enough forces to take on the Taliban

but sadly there is no will or resolve to fight," said

Mohammad Zahir Niazi, chief of Chardara, a district

in Kunduz.

"We are only defending."

Hundreds of Afghan security forces sent to reinforce

them were stuck in neighbouring Baghlan province as

Taliban fighters blocked roads with large stones and

sandbags, a senior Afghan security official said.

A Taliban commander acknowledged his fighters had

failed to hold the airport, but said the group's forces

were still in control of the city.

"We actually wanted to capture the airport

and organised a big attack last night," said a Taliban

commander close to Mullah Akhtar Mansour, the

Taliban's new leader.

"We could not seize the airport but captured some of

its surroundings," he said.

In the city, Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, a spokesman for

the police chief in Kunduz, said Afghan security

forces had regained control of the police

headquarters in Kunduz on Tuesday night.

"Hundreds of Taliban are killed and their dead bodies

are on streets ... right now a heavy fight is going on

inside the city," Hussaini told Reuters by telephone.

HELP FROM ABOVE

Afghan security forces have struggled to hold off a

multi-pronged insurgency since the bulk of foreign

troops withdrew at the end of last year.

Some German troops have been deployed to the

Kunduz area to help advise Afghan security forces

during the battle, a senior foreign diplomat said on

Tuesday.

Germany's defence minister had signalled on Tuesday

that she was open to delaying the withdrawal of

German soldiers from Afghanistan beyond next year.

The U.S. military has carried out two air strikes on

Kunduz since fighting began on Monday.

A U.S military official, speaking on condition of

anonymity, said one of the air strikes was carried out

in an effort to protect coalition forces after Taliban

fighters stole a tank and were heading towards the

airfield.

Even if ultimately unsuccessful, the battle for Kunduz

appears to have re-energised insurgents who only

months ago were deeply divided over who should

lead the movement following confirmation of the

death of its founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar.

The Taliban has since said one reason for the assault

on Kunduz was to prove the group was united after

the appointment of Mansour in July angered many

key figures in the insurgency.

(Additional reporting by Jessica Donati and Kay

Johnson in KABUL, Jibran Ahmed in PESHAWAR and

Phil Stewart in WASHINGTON; Writing by Krista

Mahr; Editing by Mike Collett-White, Michael Perry

and Paul Tait)

http://in.mobile.reuters.com/article/idINKCN0RU07W20150930?irpc=932

[WRW]

now seems Kunduz is back with Government

the airbase there was our place to bug out to and get Piazza also retina scan (a most intersting thing)

 

now seems that I am due back in Kabul for a short visit - evaluating IT - no dates

[Simon Tan]

You are just a conflict magnet.

[WRW]

I think the other way around

it very often that place in trouble need some additional work

 

to be honest I find it interesting - last trip daily travel meant being able to identify the different versions of AKs on the street

also getting decent T shirts in one of the camps

[Panzermann]

more for history department by now:

 

THE PRT KUNDUZ: AN UNSUCCESSFUL COMMAND STRUCTURE (global ecco)

 

A KSK lieutenant colonel's analysis.

[Panzermann]

Doctors Without Borders says U.S.

airstrike hit hospital in Afghanistan; at

least 19 dead (Washington Post)

 

...

The airstrike occurred before dawn when a Doctors Without Borders trauma center in war- torn Kunduz was struck while doctors were treating dozens of patients. Hospital officials said they were assaulted from the air for 30 to 45 minutes, resulting in a large fire that burned some patients to death in their beds .

Among those killed were 12 of the charity groups staff members , the group said .

...

[Red Ant]

I can't help but wonder how the frig something like this is even still possible in this day and age? We have military GPS, precision guided munitions, all kinds of hi-tech gadgets ... you'd think it should be possible to try and not bomb a fucking hospital!

[Simon Tan]

It's not like they are using FAB-250 M54 iron bombs yes?

[Red Ant]

It's not like they are using FAB-250 M54 iron bombs yes?

 

Well, let me ask you a question. Are the positions of hospitals known or not? It's not like they pop up out of nowhere over night. Given the bad PR this kind of incidents tends to cause, might it not be wise to err on the side of caution and refrain from dropping heavy ordnance within a radius of say 1,000 meters from a hospital if there is no pressing need?

Edited October 4, 2015 by Red Ant

[Simon Tan]

Don't you just love the irony of it all. Sorry....bad me. The US is essentially a dysfunctional leaderless organization at this time with no clue what it is doing. This rot is now manifesting at all levels. The panic of losing Kunduz AND the political black eye from Syria-Iraq led to this screw up. Someone called in the grid square, they did not verify with eyes on and bang. I dont blame anyone, I blame everyone. Starting with that worthless pile of dogshit in Doha.

[Colin]

can't have a Peace Prize without breaking some eggs you know......

[Red Ant]

Someone called in the grid square, they did not verify with eyes on and bang.

 

Well, this may sound stupid, but I'm starting to think it might be a good idea to program the coordinates of hospitals and similarly problematic sites in the theater into the planes' navigation gear as "Points of Interest" and automatically pop a warning on one of the plane's MFDs if it gets very close to one of these sites to at least make the pilot aware of the risk.

 

I realize that even if you go out of your way to avoid collateral damage, it isn't always doable or else you just got to stop using air support altogether, but it seems to me that this one could have been avoided relatively easily.

Edited October 4, 2015 by Red Ant

[WRW]

I have a couple of observations

 

the hospital was from memory fairly non descript from the ground

when i was there 2012/2013 MSF was on the target list - AFAIK - when it might have come off the list I do not know

I was surprised with the film footage i saw - either the place was on the reciving end of a number of boms over a hour or so or was at the end of a Gunship for the same period - all I saw was a building on fire, I honestly expected much more damage

[swerve]

Whose target list?

[Simon Tan]

American Hospital Bombers.

[Panzermann]

I have a couple of observations

 

the hospital was from memory fairly non descript from the ground

when i was there 2012/2013 MSF was on the target list - AFAIK - when it might have come off the list I do not know

I was surprised with the film footage i saw - either the place was on the reciving end of a number of boms over a hour or so or was at the end of a Gunship for the same period - all I saw was a building on fire, I honestly expected much more damage

Seems To have been an AC-130 gunship strike:

 

U.S. Airstrike on Kunduz Hospital: An Open Source Overview (bell¿ngcat)

 

 

Washington Post reports that the province gouverneur said that there had been Taliban in the hospital:

 

Afghan response to hospital bombing is muted, even sympathetic (WaPo)

[WRW]

Whose target list?

The outfit responsible for our security RMO, used compile a list of potential targets that were of interest to various local nefarious organisations, we neve got in the top five until one weekend when the top five moved out of town - fortunately it was only for a few days

[Adam Peter]

The view of the DWB: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/afghanistan-msf-demands-explanations-after-deadly-airstrikes-hit-hospital-kunduz

 

An interview with a Hungarian nurse, Jecs Zoltán Lajos, about what happened: http://index.hu/kulfold/2015/10/04/magyar_tulelo_beszelt_egy_afganisztani_korhaz_lebombazasarol/

 

He says he was shocked, the attack lasted for half hour, a patient on the operating table and a doctor died, some patients burned alive, the other wing with patients in bed was unharmed.

[WRW]

why so much fire damage and refernces to burning?

[T-44]

why so much fire damage and refernces to burning?

Oxygen? It's a hospital, after all.

[Simon Tan]

HEI-T.

[Panzermann]

Even the tracers alone might ignite a fire if they hit something inflamable.

 

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MSF demands an independent investigation of course and claims that yes, there have been Taliban, but in the beds being treated and that the hospital was not occupied.

 

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/afghanistan-msf-demands-explanations-after-deadly-airstrikes-hit-hospital-kunduz

 

So why did the Special Forces attack the hospital? They should have known it is a hospital.

Edited October 6, 2015 by Panzermann