Col. Khalid Wardak, second right, the police chief of Ghazni, and Col. Abdul Mobin Mohabati, right, the commander of the Afghan Army brigade based in Ghazni.CreditMujib Mashal/The New York Times
New York Times: In Recaptured Afghan District, Shattered Forces Show Hints of a Rebound
KHWAJA UMARI, Afghanistan — The battle for control of an Afghan district is often fierce, involving car bombs, airstrikes and raids that destroy government buildings and leave a trail of bodies.
But the Afghan military’s routing of the Taliban two weeks ago from Khwaja Umari, a district about 10 miles from Ghazni City, capped a rare period of relatively good news for a military demoralized by years of high casualties and territorial loss.
More proactive security forces, borne of a generational shift to younger leaders, have been credited with denying the Taliban any major new gains at a crucial time of peace negotiations. The forces have ruthlessly used commandos and airstrikes to bleed the insurgents, waging what has been a more flexible and adaptive counterinsurgency compared to the older ways, when the forces remained less mobile and largely defensive.
The strategy, even if not significantly reducing the casualties of Afghan forces, seems to be slowing the insurgents’ momentum.
Whether the Afghan forces can hold the district from falling again to the Taliban, whose fighters lurk on its edges and still fire mortars on government soldiers, will be a test of whether the military pressure is just the result of a savvy use of force or will translate into deeper changes.
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WNU Editor: Those who are covering the Afghan war very closely are telling me the same thing .... that the new younger commanders are making a difference on the ground. Is this sustainable? Ask me that question next year.
