- Joined
- Jun 12, 2020
Taliban offensive of 2021 and collapse of Afghan government.
- Thread starter Ancient Pioneer
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2018
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2020
I haven't seen it posted on here, so here's some pictures of the gear the Army left behind for the Taliban:
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2019
Even if they are busted surplus I'd happily give those guns a proper home
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2018
Are PVS-7s still in use, or is that really old stock that was somehow still laying around?
Ancient Pioneer
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2019
I'm seeing tweets claiming that the Taliban are patrolling Kandahar city now, if true the city surrendered without a fight.
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2015
They love authoritarian regimes, this isn't remotely surprising. This is what they're used to, this is what they want, this is actual PeAcE iN tHe MiDdLe EaSt.
Ancient Pioneer
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2019
Taliban Enter Kandahar City and Seize Border Posts
The insurgent assaulted a vital city in Afghanistan’s south on Friday, less than 24 hours after President Biden reaffirmed his decision to withdraw from the country.
Taliban Enter Kandahar City and Seize Border Posts
The insurgent assaulted a vital city in Afghanistan’s south on Friday, less than 24 hours after President Biden reaffirmed his decision to withdraw from the country.
Afghan security forces guarding a road during fighting with the Taliban in Kandahar on Friday.Credit...Javed Tanveer/Agence France-Presse —
July 9, 2021
KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban forces on Friday penetrated Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, in a new phase of a sweeping insurgent offensive that has captured territory across the country since May 1, when U.S. forces began withdrawing.
The insurgents had been encroaching on Kandahar city, the capital of the province of the same name, for several weeks, capturing surrounding districts, before entering the city for the first time Friday.
Taliban fighters entered Kandahar’s Seventh Police District Friday, seizing houses and engaging with security forces in the area, said Bahir Ahmadi, the spokesman for the Kandahar governor. Commandos and other special forces units were battling the insurgents well into the evening, proceeding cautiously because the area is heavily populated, Mr. Ahmadi said.
The Afghan Air Force struck a number of Taliban positions in neighboring districts, as the insurgents attempted to push their way into the city.
The attack comes less than 24 hours after President Biden defended his decision to end American involvement in Afghanistan, asserting that the United States can no longer afford the human cost or strategic distraction of a 20-year conflict that he said had strayed far from its initial mission.
In a nod to the ongoing instability, Mr. Biden said the United States would remain engaged in diplomatic efforts and continue to support the Afghan government with money and supplies even after all U.S. troops withdraw.
The president also affirmed that he did not believe a Taliban takeover of the whole country was inevitable, calling the Afghan security forces “better trained, better equipped and more competent in terms of conducting war.”
Despite Mr. Biden’s affirmations, the Afghan security forces have struggled to defend themselves against the Taliban, who in the span of just over two months have managed to seize at least 150 of Afghanistan’s roughly 400 districts.
Kandahar Province, the main city in Afghanistan’s ethnic Pashtun heartland in the south, was the birthplace of the Taliban during the country’s civil war in the 1990s. And it has been a focus of the insurgents’ push in recent days. In the last week alone, insurgents captured Panjwai and Zharey, two districts that neighbor Kandahar city. They have also carried out a series of attacks on police outposts on the outskirts of the city.
Elsewhere in Kandahar Province, the Afghan security forces have been embroiled in fighting in Arghandab, another district bordering the provincial capital, and near the Pakistan border crossing of Spin Boldak.
In the western part of the country, Taliban militants captured two major border crossings his week, Islam Qala at the Iran border and Torghundi bordering Turkmenistan, local officials said. The loss of the border posts, both in the province of Herat, could prove costly, as they are the country’s largest, collecting a quarter of the country’s annual customs revenue, about $281 million.
Afghan refugees at the Islam Qala border crossing to Iran in March 2020. The town was reported captured by the Taliban on Thursday.Credit...Hamed Sarfarazi/Associated Press
While much of the country’s customs collection takes place in Herat, duties on oil, gas and fresh produce continue to be collected at the Iran border posts, now in the hands of the Taliban, officials said.
Iran’s customs spokesman said Thursday all trade with Afghanistan was suspended at the border crossings under the control of Taliban. The reaction has been different in another of Afghanistan’s neighbors, Tajikistan, where dozens of trucks continue to pour across the northern border every day at the Sher Khan Bandar post in Kunduz Province, even though it was seized by insurgents three weeks ago.
Around Herat Province, nearly a dozen districts have fallen in the last few days. A powerful local warlord, Ismail Khan, who has played a key role in Afghan politics for decades, vowed to deploy 1,500 armed fighters around the city to defend it against the Taliban.
In a news conference in Moscow on Friday, Taliban officials claimed that the group now controls 85 percent of Afghanistan, though other assessments put the group’s control at closer to one-third to one-half the national territory.
But the boast reflected the insurgent group’s increasing self-confidence as government troops continue to abandon district centers. The Taliban have been trying to rebrand themselves as capable governors while pursuing their ruthless, land-grabbing offensive. The combination is a stark signal that the insurgents fully intend to try for all-out dominance of Afghanistan once the American withdrawal is completed.
Russian officials said the Taliban now control two-thirds of Afghanistan’s border with Tajikistan, across which more than 1,000 Afghan soldiers fled last week.
Afghan soldiers at a checkpoint in the Guzara District of Herat Province.Credit...Jalil Ahmad/Reuters
“We want all representatives of Afghan society” to participate in the country’s future, Shahabuddin Dilawar, a Taliban negotiator, said in a translation provided by Russian television on Friday.
“Whatever their beliefs, they can participate,” he said. “Our stance is: for Afghan traditions, and the rights of all Afghan citizens to get an education in our country — men and women,” Mr. Dilawar said.
On Wednesday, Taliban forces entered another provincial capital, Qala-e-Naw, freeing more than 100 prisoners there and nearly taking the capital of Badghis Province. Afghan commandos and air support eventually pushed the insurgents to its periphery.
Other provincial capitals in the country’s north — long known as an anti-Taliban stronghold — are also under siege, with insurgent fighters on the periphery of at least three other important cities.
The Taliban’s recent offensive has killed hundreds of Afghan troops in recent weeks, and hundreds of others have surrendered, forfeiting vast amounts of weapons, equipment and territory. The fighting has also displaced thousands of Afghan civilians.
In June, at least 703 Afghan security forces and 208 civilians were killed in Afghanistan, the highest count among security forces since The Times began independently tracking casualties in September 2018.
Forty miles east of Kabul, the capital, the Taliban captured a string of villages in the Sarobi district this week. Government outposts in several of these villages were abandoned, said Abdul Wahid Wahdat, a local tribal elder. He said Taliban and residents had then looted the outposts.
“The Americans trained these forces for 20 years, but they were not capable of keeping their outposts for four days,” Mr. Wahdat said. “There was no fighting between security forces and the Taliban. These areas were abandoned without the firing of a single shot.”
Well this NYT article from yesterday seems to indicate they were just breaking into the Western half of the city, There doesn't seem to be any indication that this is a pitched battle like Fallujah during Phantom Fury, at this point we just have to wait for more video and tweets to arrive to make a real conclusion if the city actually completely fell or if its just partially occupied. Given that the ANDSF forces were surrendering it doesn't look promising.
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2018
Be nice if the Afghan government could give some orders besides "Stay at your post and fight"
Kind of pathetic after 19 years they weren't ready for this.
Kind of pathetic after 19 years they weren't ready for this.
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2018
Just give me Carte Blanche and i will fix your Afghan problem and build the perfect Utopia.
Need cheap Opium? there is a tax discount if you feed your afghan slaves.
Wanna hunt the most dangerouse game on your next Safari? Wild ones cost 500$, captured one market price?
need an organ for medical or culinaric reasons? thats your bussines, it has the same VAT as other food.
Need a Place to try your experimental drug? Kandahar is your place to go.
Afghan Stock will rise faster than Tesla, so dont miss the IPO.
Need cheap Opium? there is a tax discount if you feed your afghan slaves.
Wanna hunt the most dangerouse game on your next Safari? Wild ones cost 500$, captured one market price?
need an organ for medical or culinaric reasons? thats your bussines, it has the same VAT as other food.
Need a Place to try your experimental drug? Kandahar is your place to go.
Afghan Stock will rise faster than Tesla, so dont miss the IPO.
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2015
I wish china would treat the taliban like their own mudslimes. Every country should do that.
PS1gamenwatch
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2015
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2020
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2019
can't wait for patriot act 2.0 in united states.
- Joined
- May 4, 2021
Hah, the Afghan National Army will fold faster than the South Vietnamese. At least the ARVN was able to put up some fight and soak up NVA troops who had tanks and artillery here and there after the US has left the country.
PS1gamenwatch
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2015
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2018
ARVN put up a hell of a fight. It took almost a year for Saigan to fall
Oh uh...Looks like we got to cocky taliban bro's. ANA is launching a counter-offensive in Badghis province.
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2019
They were still in use at infantry battalions at the HHC level in 2015. So I can see definitely picture a conex for a support unit full of them just left at Bagram.
Ancient Pioneer
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2019
Seems like the Taliban are just assassinating the pilots who fly Super Tucano missions against them. The Afghan MOD twitter account is an endless reel of CAS attacks against the Taliban, something I don't really have the effort to download and put up here, also because I have reservations that it really matters. Bragging about blowing up 30 Taliban means little when entire regions of your country are being seized seems laughable to a cynic like me.
Taliban Seizes Civilian Homes In Kandahar As Government Forces Fight To Defend City
Fighting between Afghan security forces and Taliban militants broke out in the southern city of Kandahar on July 9, leaving at least 18 people dead and more than 100 wounded. Government troops say the militants have seized homes in residential neighborhoods, forcing civilians to flee.
The Taliban seem invested in Kandajar City now and there seems to be fighting going on
So it appears that the Taliban are invested into Kandahar City now and continue to flow manpower and weaponry in, it seems that there are people fighting them off but as always, its equal parts of defection and surrender to resistance. Reuters did a fluff piece for some reason, the guy clearly does not understand military matters at all -- the article talks about a detachment going on patrol and not finding Taliban, as if the Taliban stations a garrison in every single village they have captured.
Afghan special forces moved in on Taliban, only to find they had melted away
By Danish Siddiqui4 Min Read
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Soldiers from Afghanistan’s special forces paused for a short prayer late on Sunday night on a deserted stretch of highway in the southern province of Kandahar. They do so each time they prepare to face Taliban militants in battle.
The highly trained troops had been called in to flush out insurgents who attacked regular forces and local police hours earlier, only to find that the Taliban had disappeared into the darkness leaving behind a few civilians and wounded soldiers.
“We received a report that the enemy had infiltrated here and wanted to overthrow the district,” Major Mohammad din Tasir, a member of the special forces unit deployed in the Taliban’s former stronghold of Kandahar, told Reuters after the operation.
The report had suggested up to 300 Taliban fighters were present in the area, he said.
“Unfortunately, what we heard in the report and what we saw on the scene did not match.”
Tasir said the absence of Taliban fighters showed that claims by the group that they now controlled up to 85% of the country’s territory were exaggerated.
It also underlined the difficulty in facing an enemy that mixes open assaults on checkpoints, villages, towns and cities with hit-and-run tactics that tend to avoid heavy casualties.
Recent territorial gains by the Taliban come as foreign troops led by the U.S. military withdraw from Afghanistan after 20 years of war, leaving the task of pulling the country from a spiralling security crisis to local forces.
On Monday, the U.S. general leading the war in Afghanistan, Austin Miller, will relinquish his command, in a symbolic end to America’s longest conflict.
TALIBAN ADVANCES
Kandahar is one of many provinces to see a recent surge in offensives by the Taliban, which says it wants to be involved in running the country peacefully although it has always opposed the presence of foreign forces.In the last week the group has been advancing in the west of the country near the border with Iran and has surrounded the central city of Ghazni.
The special forces unit had been called in after insurgents attempted to take control of Khan Baba village in the Dand district of Kandahar, unleashing RPGs and heavy machinegun fire at Afghan security forces and local police.
The soldiers travelled there under cover of darkness, using night vision equipment and moving in Humvee vehicles scarred with bullet holes from previous missions, some of them carried out with U.S. allies.
When they arrived they found the village largely abandoned. Air strikes by the Afghan Air Force had helped push back Taliban fighters.
Special forces personnel moved swiftly and silently from house to house, entering through doors and jumping walls to locate Taliban remnants who may still be hiding in the area.
They found only a few mainly elderly locals who said that other residents had fled when the fighting began. The troops also tended to soldiers wounded in the earlier clashes before evacuating them to the nearest military base.
In the distance sporadic gunfire rang out.
An Afghan defence official said on Twitter on Monday that 26 insurgents had been killed in operations and air strikes a day earlier in two Kandahar districts, including Dand.
Reuters could not independently verify this.
Once the operation was complete, the special forces caught a short rest, before preparing to receive orders for their next mission
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2018
That article...hah
As a former Army vet who was stationed over there in 2003 for a few months before i got the Afghan butt piss diaherrea that is not really how the Taliban work. Their primary mode of attack is paying some dumb mountain farmer to shoot a rocket at an outpost. The farmer doesn't even do it, he gives the rocket to one of his kids to do it.
Taliban is a mindset. Anybody could be Taliban because they activate themselves like cancer cells when others are around but are dormant when they are outnumbered.
There are probably less than 10,000 actual Soldiers and ten times the sleepers like what I said above.
When the Taliban launch an offensive the biggest threat is the people in the region that have been friendly to your face because they go dig up the weapons and make the IED's at night. You rarely see or kill "Taliban"...its usually a 7 year old who got paid $5 to shoot at you
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