Counting on elite forces to save Afghanistan
As Taliban insurgency enters 15th year, hopes rest on the country’s commando units
CAMP MOREHEAD, AFGHANISTAN— Sgt. Jawed Hazara, with an elite Afghan army commando unit, chugged an energy drink, grabbed his M-4 assault rifle and hopped into the driver’s seat of a military pickup truck. The 24-year-old was directing a convoy of commandos on night patrol in the southern outskirts of Kabul.
“Now, we do my job,” Hazara said as he fumbled with his radio and sped off the base.
“By the grace of God, I will do a good job.”
Indeed, if large swaths of Afghanistan are to be saved this year, that responsibility will likely rest on how Hazara and 11,500 other Afghan commandos perform as their country staggers into the 15th year of the Taliban insurgency.
Despite more than $35 billion (U.S.) in U.S. support since the Taliban was driven from power here in 2001, the regular Afghan army is still broadly criticized as ineffective because of defections, timidity and an inconsis- tent command-and-control network. But U.S. and Afghan officials believe the army’s commando and Special Forces units can fill the void.
“All of the things you read about in the news — the units keeping things from going very wrong” are the commandos and Special Forces, said U.S. army Col. Joe Duncan, commander of the Special Operations Advisory Group, which supports the Afghan National Army’s Special Operations Command (ANASOC).
“You won’t find commandos laying down their arms and refusing to fight.”
But the Afghan army’s reliance on its commandos is controversial, amid sharp disagreements over the effective deployment of elite forces. And especially this year, the stakes couldn’t be higher for the commandos as well as Afghanistan’s broader security force, which includes about 320,000 soldiers and police officers.
Afghan intelligence assessments suggest that the Taliban includes between 45,000 and 65,000 fighters.
And the Taliban isn’t the only problem. Security forces will be tested by efforts from Daesh, also known as ISIS and ISIL, to gain a foothold even as older militant groups — most notably Al Qaeda — show signs of re- establishing bases here.
Last spring, after most U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan, the Taliban repeatedly overran or outsmarted Afghan army units in rural southern and eastern provinces. Then, in late September, in a humiliating setback for the Afghan army and police forces, the Taliban seized control of Kunduz, a major city in northern Afghanistan.
Within days, however, Afghan commandos fought their way back into the city. Commandos were also instrumental in retaking territory in Badakhshan, Kunar and Nangahar provinces last year.