Facing The Taliban, Afghanistan Deploys US And NATO-trained Special Forces

Illustration of Afghan special forces. (Wikimedia Commons/Sgt. Audiffred Laboy Cruz)

JAKARTA - The Afghan military has deployed special forces to hunt down Taliban insurgents, who have recently attacked Afghan regular forces and police.

However, the Taliban insurgents managed to escape the special forces ambush, leaving Afghan civilians and regular soldiers wounded and disappearing into the darkness.

"We received reports that the enemy has infiltrated here and wants to overthrow the district," Major Mohammad din Tasir, a member of a special forces unit stationed in a former Taliban stronghold in Kandahar, told Reuters after the operation.

Major Mohammad din Tasir, his party received reports that said, about 300 Taliban insurgents were in the area.

"Unfortunately, what we heard in the report and what we saw at the scene did not match."

Illustration of Afghan special forces. (Wikimedia Commons/Sgt. Audiffred Laboy Cruz)

Tasir said the absence of Taliban fighters showed the claim of the Taliban insurgents, who claimed control of up to 85 percent of Afghanistan's territory, was an exaggerated claim.

However, it also underscores the difficulty of dealing with an enemy who mixes open attacks on checkpoints, villages and towns with hit and run tactics, with a tendency to avoid heavy casualties.

Afghan special forces have also been deployed to Kandahar, as the Taliban have stepped up attacks in the region in recent weeks. In the last week the group has advanced to the west of the country near the border with Iran and has besieged the central city of Ghazni.

Special forces units have been called in after insurgents attempted to take control of Khan Baba village in Kandahar's Dand district, releasing RPGs and heavy machine gun fire at Afghan security forces and local police.

The soldiers traveled in the dark, using night vision equipment and moving in Humvees that had multiple gunshot holes in previous missions.

Afghan military illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/FutureTrillionaire)

When they arrived, they found the village largely abandoned. Air strikes by the Afghan Air Force have helped push back the Taliban fighters

Special forces personnel move quickly and stealthily from house to house, entering through doors and jumping over walls to find any remnants of the Taliban who may still be hiding in the area.

They found only a few local residents, mostly elderly, who said others had fled when the fighting began. Troops also treated soldiers injured in previous clashes, then evacuated them to a nearby military base.

An Afghan defense official said on Twitter on Monday that about 26 insurgents had been killed in operations and air strikes the day before in two districts of Kandahar, including Dand. Reuters was unable to independently verify this.

The decision of the United States (US) and the international coalition of troops to leave Afghanistan after 20 years, was used by the Taliban to carry out attacks and security disturbances against Afghan police and soldiers, as well as special forces.

NATO military illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/US Department of Defense Current Photos)

Trained by US and NATO forces, Afghan special forces are expected to continue receiving training, as NATO plans to locate a base for training in Qatar.

Military bases are an important issue for the international troop alliance from 36 countries in Afghanistan, as there is still an 'obligation' for NATO's strategic commitment to train Afghan special forces.

"We are in talks to allocate a base in Qatar, regarding the construction of an exclusive training ground for senior members of the Afghan forces," said a senior NATO official in Kabul, Afghanistan, as reported by Reuters Tuesday, June 15.

For information, the commander of the international coalition forces in Afghanistan, General Austin Miller from the United States, officially relinquished his command today, as a symbol of the end of one of the longest wars in the United States of America.