How the Afghan Army, Built by the U.S. Over Two Decades, Was Overrun

KABUL—The Afghan authorities outpost in Imam Sahib, a district of northern Kunduz province, held out for two months right after staying surrounded by the Taliban. At 1st, elite commando units would come at the time a 7 days on a resupply operate. Then, these runs grew to become a lot more scarce, as did the supplies.

“In the final days, there was no food items, no h2o and no weapons,” claimed trooper Taj Mohammad, 38. Fleeing in a single armored personnel carrier and a single Ford Ranger, the remaining gentlemen last but not least made a operate to the relative basic safety of the provincial funds, which collapsed months afterwards. They still left powering yet another 11 APCs to the Taliban.

As district right after district fell in this summer’s Taliban offensive, without the need of a lot noticeable aid from the Afghan countrywide army and police forces, other troopers merely made the calculation that it wasn’t value preventing anymore—especially if the Taliban made available them secure passage residence, as they usually did.

“Everyone just surrendered their guns and ran absent,” claimed Rahimullah, a twenty five-year soldier who joined the army a year in the past and served in the Shahr-e-Bozorg district of northeastern Badakhshan province. “We did not get any help from the central authorities, and so the district fell without the need of any preventing.”

Afghanistan’s countrywide army and police forces, theoretically numbering 350,000 gentlemen and experienced and equipped at big expense by the U.S. and Western allies, were being intended to be a potent deterrent to the Taliban. That is a single cause why President Biden, when he introduced in April his choice to withdraw all American forces from Afghanistan, expressed assurance in the Afghan military’s potential to keep floor.