100 Afghan soldiers allegedly flee across border, chased by the Taliban

MAZAR-E-SHARIF, AFGHANISTAN » At least 100 Afghan soldiers abandoned their posts and fled imminent capture by the Taliban by crossing the country’s border into neighboring Turkmenistan, only to face immediate expulsion, Afghan officials said Saturday.

It was the latest in a series of insurgent attacks in the hotly contested Bala Murghab district, where an entire Afghan army company was killed or captured Monday. By Saturday, its defenders said, the district had mostly fallen into Taliban control.

Afghan officials gave varying accounts of what happened Saturday, with some saying the soldiers would be returned to safety by Turkmenistan, and others that they had been forced back by the Turkmenistan army into a no man’s land, a 500-yard-wide strip between border fences. And some said the soldiers had been forced back into Taliban hands by day’s end.

Saleh Mohammad Mubarez, commander of the Afghan local police in the district, said that 140 soldiers from the Afghan Border Police, a military unit, had fled toward Turkmenistan after two days of Taliban attacks on bases in the Morichaq area.

Farid Akhezi, a member of the Badghis provincial council, said 12 Afghan border posts had been abandoned, with 50 soldiers surrendering to the Taliban and 100 others fleeing into Turkmenistan.

He said that country’s army forced them back, so they surrendered to the insurgents late Saturday. Most of the soldiers were said by local officials to be part of the Afghan Border Police.

An Afghan Ministry of Defense official said they were local irregular militiamen.