Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, April 25th, 2024

What Are the Reasons Behind the Tactical Retreats or Fall of districts in Afghanistan?

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What Are the Reasons Behind the Tactical Retreats or Fall of districts in Afghanistan?

In recent weeks and months, the war and violence have intensified throughout Afghanistan. From north to south and east to west including central parts of the country have entirely or relatively changed into a battlefield. The insurgent groups and terrorist fighters are seeking to increase their territorial control attacking officials, security forces, and political rivals, as well civilians, including women, children, and minorities. According to Tolonews, in the few last months, at least 19 districts in different parts of the country have fallen under the control of the Taliban. The latest examples of districts that were fallen into the control of the Taliban were the center of Qaisar and Dawlat Abad districts in Faryab province, the center of Shahrak district in Ghor province, the center of Chek in Maidan Wardak district, and the center of Gezab district in Uruzgan province. These successive falls of the districts have caused many doubts and questions in the media and political community of Afghanistan.The attacks of terrorists fighters have not only increased on the centers of districts, but also on civilians and minority groups such as on Hazara defenseless people in Afghanistan. For example, on May 8, a bomb blast near a school in western Kabul killed about 90 people and injured 240 others, many of them schoolgirls children. A few weeks later, similar successive attacks were carried out in western parts of Kabul killing and wounding dozens of civilians in the pole-Sokhta, Charahi-Shahid, and Sarekariz area. On May 19, three terrorist incidents were reported in western Afghanistan when the militants stopped a bus and killed three passengers from a certain ethnic minority.  These attacks were so cruel and dreadful that shook the region and the world. The representatives of western countries such as Germany and the European Union (EU) asked that the killing of Hazaras must be stopped and the crimes against this ethnic group should be investigated. Despite this, no group has claimed responsibility for these mysterious attacks and the government could also not divulge hands behind these cruel deeds.According to the speakers of the security officials, the cases of Hazara carnage are under investigation, but the falls of districts are justified as a tactical retreat so as to prevent the civilian causalities in the war field while these responses or justifications are not acceptable in public opinion. The countless causalities of civilians and succeeding falls of districts have become so repeated that entirely disappointed the people. Even, the term “tactical retreat” has so often been repeated by government spokesmen that have changed to sarcasm and an ironic word among people. Now, after each failure of the government, the citizens ironically call it is” a tactical retreat”! This shows that the people are not satisfied with the responses and justifications that are provided by the security officials. In fact, the people are unprecedentedly disappointed and worried about the coming weeks and months. Now, the common question among people is why the progress of Taliban fighters has accelerated? and on the other side, why the tactical retreat of the government forces is not ending?According to local military and security experts, the tactical retreat of the government forces neither shows the defeat of the security forces nor a change in war tactics by the Afghan government and the Taliban but shows weakness in the strategic leadership of the war which linked to lack of meritocratic culture in the recruitments. Because of this chronic problem, the security forces have been so spread throughout the country that neither they are sufficiently supported and nor provided with required military supplements. When the NATO forces were behind the Afghan security forces, they were dispersed in different parts of the country, but now that NATO forces are withdrawing, the government and the strategic leadership of the Afghan war have not accurately accessed its ground and aerial capabilities.In addition, it seems that the leadership of the war has no comprehensive study about the geography of the country and so they have dispersed the security forces and kept a fat morsel for the enemy. For this reason, the security forces are not sufficiently supplied and not supported with the required facilities on the battlefield. In some cases, it is heard from the security forces on the battlefield said that they do not expect to be provided with fresh food but with weapons and bullets.the local experts also link the successive falls of the districts to other factors such as the defensive position of security forces, lowering the morale because of the indifferences, decrease of international supports and their irresponsible withdrawal, lack of coordination amongst the leadership of security forces, and more importantly the weaknesses in the aerial forces of Afghanistan.  the nature of invasive war in the outspread geography of the country needs rapid aerial support while there are always complaints about shortcomings about aerial support and supplements.In the last two decades, although billions of dollars were poured into the country, yet the country has no enough military and espial aircrafts.  Unfortunately, the share of international support in the reconstruction of Afghanistan’s aerial forces was insufficient. The experts and security forces on the battlefield have always complained about the inadequacy and weakness of aerial forces in recent years. Even, in some cases, the defense forces raided the enemies by the civilian helicopters or jalopy helicopters which repeatedly caused grave arm and civilian tragedies. Thus, the Taliban and terrorist fighters freely move from one to another places without fear from the aerial forces of the country. 

Mohammad Zahir Akbari is the permanent writer of the Daily Outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at mohammadzahirakbari@gmail com.

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