Afghanistan News & Discussion - April 2016

[Cain Marko]

[

Arms left for the Pakis:
1. 600,000 assault rifles including M-16s and M-4s.
2. 162,000 pieces of secure communication equipment.
3. 16,000 night vision goggles.
4. 4,702 armored vehicles including 2,000 Humvees in excellent condition.
5. 2,520 bombs.
6. 20,040 hand grenades.
7. 1,394 grenade launchers
8. 40 aircraft including UH-60 Blackhawks, Scout attack helos, and Scan Eagle drones. The GAO reports that 200 aircraft were delivered to Afghanistan.

If this is remotely true, India better get ready for some heat. Tsps solution to all it's problems has always been to start misadventures in india. With this kind of hardware and millions of jobless, madarsa graduates, the resources are abundant.

[Aditya_V]

Weapons plus Morale will be high thinking they have defeated the Soviets and now the USA, Arms plus Morale is a definate combination for some misadventure against India.

We must be prepared for this, and start planning our counter attacks, those drones in the sesnitive area of Jammu were not fun. We must not public ally announce it but our drones must scout and try and compelty map what is on the other side before the action starts so targets are ready along with real time intelligence.

[rsingh]

It is possible that US may start air attacks to destroy leftover weapons, once Evacuation is complete.

[Ambar]

I am not understanding why should India be more worried about its security and threat from pakis than what it does already every day ? No paki jihadi scum is foolish enough to drive a mrap or a humvee through the border ! Terrorists sneak in from the border and not fly in using blackhawks, besides, if Pakis attempt to use those black hawks they lose the plausible deniability. As for night vision scopes, M-16s and grenades, do we really believe pakis have a shortage of this ? They have the largest illegal gun industry in the world ! Nothing changes for India, we were and we still are under constant threat from terrorism.

[Hari Seldon]

Moi only and fond hope is that the amriki weapons stash makes Pak overconfident again to try a fresh round of tactical brilliance. Same story since generations - with Patton tanks in '65 and then with chagai fizzle in '98 -> kargil war and now this, perhaps?

[SRajesh]

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/t ... d=msedgntp
The gora Jernail says bunnies are broke!!!
US reports says $85 Billion worth military hardware left behind by Bidenwa!!
What's there to stop the bunnies from selling most of the black-hawks and other aircraft to the highest bidder!!
Eleven has the hard cash but Alpha Dog and 'Kashgol' Khan will have to pay in Kind!!
What about Qatar/Turkeya/RSA/UAE
Any of these guys will be willing to go against Bidenwa and buys some of this stuff!!

[Dilbu]

This was predicted on BRF that it is only a matter of time that India will be linked to ISIS K.
14 From Kerala Left State to Join ISIS-K, The Group Behind Kabul Airport Attack: Report

[Atmavik]

This was predicted on BRF that it is only a matter of time that India will be linked to ISIS K.
14 From Kerala Left State to Join ISIS-K, The Group Behind Kabul Airport Attack: Report

Next #Mudi must regin

[Aditya_V]

I am not understanding why should India be more worried about its security and threat from pakis than what it does already every day ? No paki jihadi scum is foolish enough to drive a mrap or a humvee through the border ! Terrorists sneak in from the border and not fly in using blackhawks, besides, if Pakis attempt to use those black hawks they lose the plausible deniability. As for night vision scopes, M-16s and grenades, do we really believe pakis have a shortage of this ? They have the largest illegal gun industry in the world ! Nothing changes for India, we were and we still are under constant threat from terrorism.

Paki illegal rifles are useless, that's why ISI faujis control the weapons, the have the weapons that work and Aam Abdul does not, they have tried including Masood Azhar's Nephew was caught in Kashmir with a M-4 and scope. Pak Army soldiers equipment including their older rifles have degraded including older H&K G-3's. All captured and small arms will help them immensely. They will definitely better equip their troops and Jihadis.

It's a myth that equipping Jihadis was cheap, it was not. The weapons built in the garage factories when tried put were useless. All weapons use imported steel or imported directly into Pakistan. It is the limited amount of weapons in Pakistan which allows military to control the unarmed Yahoo's.

If say 5 million Aam Abdils had access to automatic fire arms with Ammo, Pakistan will be in big trouble.

[DrRatnadip]

I am not understanding why should India be more worried about its security and threat from pakis than what it does already every day ? No paki jihadi scum is foolish enough to drive a mrap or a humvee through the border ! Terrorists sneak in from the border and not fly in using blackhawks, besides, if Pakis attempt to use those black hawks they lose the plausible deniability. As for night vision scopes, M-16s and grenades, do we really believe pakis have a shortage of this ? They have the largest illegal gun industry in the world ! Nothing changes for India, we were and we still are under constant threat from terrorism.

[Tanaji]

The difference between a gun produced in Darra Adam Khel and one in a western factory is the tolerance of the constituent parts. The pure ones may have the real product for now, but persistent use will require part replacements, which they are not able to produce apart from DAK level of sophistication. The machine then loses the same level of performance and reliability.

Of course one can’t put it past the Americans to supply replacement parts, and then we would be at a disadvantage. Pure ones getting porked in Kashmir currently do not have NV gear on a regular basis and neither do they have American weapons. Expect them to now have this regularly, which would turn the kill ratio against us.

[Najunamar]

Jamwalji, that's the correct way of viewing the American motivations. Now what should be India's approach? Going forward, I believe the move should be how to ensure the Tehreek -e -talibunnies use their new found ammo against Pakis and have the flow of fefugees across the border complicate matters further.

[Mort Walker]

Some snippets from the WSJ:

What is ISIS-K?

ISIS-K is an Afghanistan-based offshoot of Islamic State, the Islamist extremist group that established what it called a caliphate in Syria and Iraq in 2014 and has carried out terrorist attacks in countries around the world. The K in ISIS-K refers to Khorasan, the province in eastern Afghanistan where the group has its headquarters.

Founded in 2015, ISIS-K’s core membership includes disgruntled members of the Afghan Taliban and its Pakistani counterpart, the TTP. According to analysts who track the movement, ISIS-K has also recruited heavily in Pakistani mosques and madrasas. The group has conducted a string of deadly attacks in Kabul, primarily targeting members of Afghanistan’s Shiite Hazara minority. Such attacks include, according to the U.S., an assault by gunmen on a maternity ward in Kabul in 2020, which killed 24 people, mostly women and children.

Who leads ISIS-K?

The group has had seven leaders during its six years in existence. A number were killed by U.S. airstrikes. The group’s first leader, Hafiz Saeed Khan, a former member of the Pakistani Taliban, was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2016. Another former leader, known as Omar Khorasani, who was detained in an Afghan government prison, was executed by the Taliban last week after they took control of Kabul. The current leader, Shahab al-Muhajir, has headed the group since his predecessor was arrested in April 2020.

Officially, the Taliban and Islamic State are enemies. The Taliban killed ISIS-K leaders in Afghan jails after they seized control last week. Islamic State also denounced the Taliban conquest of Afghanistan on Aug. 15.

Some intelligence analysts, however, point to links between ISIS-K and the Taliban’s most radical and violent wing, the Haqqani network.

Afghan security officials have for years accused the Haqqani network of providing Islamic State technical expertise and access to criminal networks in areas of Kabul to facilitate ISIS-K attacks. ISIS-K leadership has also in the past counted several former members of the Haqqani network, as well as al Qaeda.

Islamic State aims to establish a transnational caliphate, while the Taliban’s ambitions mostly concern Afghanistan.

[surinder]

This was predicted on BRF that it is only a matter of time that India will be linked to ISIS K.
14 From Kerala Left State to Join ISIS-K, The Group Behind Kabul Airport Attack: Report

There was one from Kerela in the attack on Gurdwara Guru Har Rai ji in Shor Bazar, Kabul in May, 2020. His parents were identified, not sure what happened to them.

Why is Kerela so high in ISIS-K?

[surinder]

Are the posters who are calling for Biden's resignation or impeachment serious? How does arming of Taliban or Pakistan goes against American interests in anyway? It hurts only the Afghans against Taliban, Iran to some extent and India. Unless Taliban/ISI start bombing Americans which seems unlikely, no one there cares. Deaths of a few American soldiers is nothing new and is considered cost of "peace".
When these same islamists start fighting in Iraq, Syria or start attacking American bases or oil supply lines, only then the Taliban will be considered a threat.

Agree with @jamwal. President Budhiheen will face severe loss in the ballot if the perception is that he caused loss of power; loss of life has little little effect (unless it is too high in number). The Khanate worships power, not the life span of it's denizen.

[surinder]

i call the same old prithviraj chauhan syndrome., since 2001 for 20 years Indian politicians made blunders after blunders in Afghanistan without going for the kill against Pakistan now it is their turn. So beware and be ready is my only advice. War must be taken into enemy territory and defensive mindset is a defeatist mindset., be it 1948, 1967, 1971, 1999 or all the terrorists attacks.

Terrorist Pakistan prepared itself for this day for a long time. The lowered level of terrorism against India could be attributed to focussing on the impending departure of foreign forces from A'stan, something they would know intimately being a facilitator of the talks. But otherwise they had their Talibums well trained, got rid of TTP and Baitullah Mehsuds and Baloch guys, built a fence. Most certainly had the military strategy planned out and socialized with the commanders. When the time came, they were prepared and went for it.

I am sure India has prepared too for this. Time has come to take the war to the enemy land and not simply defend our stance.

We should recognize Pashtunistan as a separate country and ask Pakistan to get out of it. Update our maps of Pakistan and refuse to recognize it as part of Pakistan. This will also force the issue on Talibums, ISIS-K and TTP.

Good to see your post, @SBajwa. Long time.

[Mort Walker]

Pak army has just shot dead 6 Afghan civilians at Torkham at border crossing. The Pakis are trying to create fear so that the Taliban will have complete control over their population.

https://pajhwok.com/2021/08/27/6-afghan ... -incident/

[Jarita]

So a new terrorist group has emerged and the Taliban are now the good guys. How predictable.

[Mort Walker]

So a new terrorist group has emerged and the Taliban are now the good guys. How predictable.

According to the US CENTCOM commander, the Taliban are unscrupulously good.

[Aditya_V]

The Good Taliban in additional to Good Pakiban have suffered soo much due to the war on Terror, so US needs to fund the GOOD Taliban with a few billion dollars plus IMF and WB never repayable Loans. more Funds to control from Isloo and La whore, to give to the Chinese Arms and infrastructure.

What can go wrong with such a strategy?

[Manish_P]

The character 'Mr. Magoo' suits Biden to a T.

[Atmavik]

So a new terrorist group has emerged and the Taliban are now the good guys. How predictable.

According to the US CENTCOM commander, the Taliban are unscrupulously good.

for the past 20 yrs US paid jaziya to pakis to fight the taliban. from now on jaziya will be paid to pakis and taliban to fight this IS-K (or what ever alphabet soup).

wah wah, who says madarsa education has no value.

[YashG]

[

Arms left for the Pakis:
1. 600,000 assault rifles including M-16s and M-4s.
2. 162,000 pieces of secure communication equipment.
3. 16,000 night vision goggles.
4. 4,702 armored vehicles including 2,000 Humvees in excellent condition.
5. 2,520 bombs.
6. 20,040 hand grenades.
7. 1,394 grenade launchers
8. 40 aircraft including UH-60 Blackhawks, Scout attack helos, and Scan Eagle drones. The GAO reports that 200 aircraft were delivered to Afghanistan.

If this is remotely true, India better get ready for some heat. Tsps solution to all it's problems has always been to start misadventures in india. With this kind of hardware and millions of jobless, madarsa graduates, the resources are abundant.

5,6,7 - Something Pak Army anyways had in plenty and could have equipped jehadis with anyway
8 Scan-eagle drones are GPS driven - all likelihood they wont be useable
8 Helos are too big to be transferred clandestinely - also I would await more information over this piece
4 Again too big for overt transfer to pakistan
2 Any secure communication eqpt by itself is an electronic equipment - all likelihood of these being inactivated remotely

1,3 Now jehadis will have M16s/M4s instead of AK47s with night vision goggles - definitely more accurate/reliable fire in night/daytime- so our forces need to be prepared for terrorists with better firepower but PA could have supplied this kind of equipment to jehadis anyways even before - now they can source it themselves from afghani blackmarket.

Small tactical disadvantage but not strategic for IA.

But TTPs/Balochis/Insurgents fighting against PA definitely didnt have access to M16/M4+Night Vision & they can even have overt access to humvees - Thats a large tactical disadvantage for PA.

Bad for us, worse for PA.
- Given PA will not have a big handle on Taliban - Why would they ? Pakistan alone cannot supply much to talibani govt. but china can through pakistan thats an angle that remains to be seen.

[Cyrano]

In hindi

[rsingh]

Watch for Hollywood take on Afgan airlift where 6 gung-ho Maines saving an important asset, shahouting move, move, move, are you ready..... Positive etc.
I will not be surprised if some maison de Hout Cuture teleases some Talibai style outfits. Even these days tourists in Peshawer buy those gunny bag type cap and salwar kamij. I am seeing some bollywood celebrities wearing Salwar as an fashion outfit.

[Pratyush]

Watch for Hollywood take on Afgan airlift where 6 gung-ho Maines saving an important asset, shahouting move, move, move, are you ready..... Positive etc.
I will not be surprised if some maison de Hout Cuture teleases some Talibai style outfits. Even these days tourists in Peshawer buy those gunny bag type cap and salwar kamij. I am seeing some bollywood celebrities wearing Salwar as an fashion outfit.

First paragraph not going to happen at all.

Second paragraph let's see.

[Guddu]

Official count from the GAO

[kit]

How are the Tailbunnies going to maintain all that..the humvees are a hog on fuel as well..

oh wait ..unkle already has a plan

.."Good" Taliban vs ISIS.

Centcom is likely to extend their support for the very terrorists they had been fighting for a decade!! ..or were they?

It is a pain to listen to the British General and Centcom lauding the Taliban !!

[Aditya_V]

Windfall for the Pakistani Army. Some of those Assualt rifles with Night vision googles will definitely be used in Kashmir.

US has got to have done this deliberately, cant be an accident that they didn't airlift the stuff out before the pull out decesion.

[kit]

If this is remotely true, India better get ready for some heat. Tsps solution to all it's problems has always been to start misadventures in india. With this kind of hardware and millions of jobless, madarsa graduates, the resources are abundant.

5,6,7 - Something Pak Army anyways had in plenty and could have equipped jehadis with anyway
8 Scan-eagle drones are GPS driven - all likelihood they wont be useable
8 Helos are too big to be transferred clandestinely - also I would await more information over this piece
4 Again too big for overt transfer to pakistan
2 Any secure communication eqpt by itself is an electronic equipment - all likelihood of these being inactivated remotely

1,3 Now jehadis will have M16s/M4s instead of AK47s with night vision goggles - definitely more accurate/reliable fire in night/daytime- so our forces need to be prepared for terrorists with better firepower but PA could have supplied this kind of equipment to jehadis anyways even before - now they can source it themselves from afghani blackmarket.

Small tactical disadvantage but not strategic for IA.

But TTPs/Balochis/Insurgents fighting against PA definitely didnt have access to M16/M4+Night Vision & they can even have overt access to humvees - Thats a large tactical disadvantage for PA.

Bad for us, worse for PA.
- Given PA will not have a big handle on Taliban - Why would they ? Pakistan alone cannot supply much to talibani govt. but china can through pakistan thats an angle that remains to be seen.

Things can get worse (for them) when they face the IA again.. the IA would be empowered with more high-power equipment and less worry about "collateral damage" .. it's gonna be an all hail Mary !

[Jarita]

According to the US CENTCOM commander, the Taliban are unscrupulously good.

for the past 20 yrs US paid jaziya to pakis to fight the taliban. from now on jaziya will be paid to pakis and taliban to fight this IS-K (or what ever alphabet soup).

wah wah, who says madarsa education has no value.

But which group is coming up with these alphabets??? The formula is the same. Double, double toil and trouble, which alphabet do I pull up now.

[chetak]

Windfall for the Pakistani Army. Some of those Assualt rifles with Night vision googles will definitely be used in Kashmir.

US has got to have done this deliberately, cant be an accident that they didn't airlift the stuff out before the pull out decesion.

It is the secure communication devices that are going to cause the most damage and will be the most difficult to counter. These will be deployed in cashmere, punjab and rajasthan sectors as also along the border areas including nepal and beediland where drug running and infiltration routes already exist

The encryption may be very difficult to break unless uncle gives us the means to do so.

[Mort Walker]

According to various sources, hundreds of MRAP Humvees, these are the heavily armored ones which can easily survive IEDs and landmines, have already been transferred to the Pak Army. There are so many Humvees out there, that many are abandoned along with other derelict equipment between Kabul and Jalalabad, which will be bombed by US military later this week, who will then claim victory.

Some 50-60 helos with pilots defected to Uzbekistan, and many helos have been disassembled and transferred to Pakistan as of middle of August.

[YashG]

Here is a very unconventional way to look at the situation.

All these armed terror groups are like business enterprises. They look for projects and want to get paid.
So we now have TTP, BLF, Talibs, JEM, LET, ISK etc. - The enterprises.
The payment agencies: US, China, Russia, Pakistan, India, Iran & Other MENA countries.
What projects are available in the region? 1. Attack CPEC 2. Protect CPEC 3. Attack Pakistan 4. Attack Iran 5. Attack India 6. Attack Xinjiang 7. Destabilise Muslim part of Russia.

Projects available in the region - which are the best RoI projects?
1 (Paid by US), 2 (Paid by China), 3 (Paid by India), 5 (Paid by Pakistan), 6 (paid by US).
So what projects will these armed forces choose? Obviously 1,2 & 3 - Good payments, Better Logistics. There will be lot of competition for these projects.

Given the scale up capacity of arms availability in blackmarkets, poor GDPs of these regions - many groups will also takeup low RoI projects for 5, 6. But with US gone, Pakistanis unable to absorb more CPEC debt, they wont have much heart to fund projects under '5' - also now that their ass is on fire due to earlier bombing. No Pakistani general wants a war with India, they want to eat their biryani -gold plated - in peace.

Talibs due to their narco business will not take part in this market anymore but many regional warlord ( who will not give two hoots abt the talibani govt.) will take part in this trade, so strategic depth to willing enterprises wil be available in Afghanistan.

[surinder]

According to various sources, hundreds of MRAP Humvees, these are the heavily armored ones which can easily survive IEDs and landmines, have already been transferred to the Pak Army. There are so many Humvees out there, that many are abandoned along with other derelict equipment between Kabul and Jalalabad, which will be bombed by US military later this week, who will then claim victory.

Some 50-60 helos with pilots defected to Uzbekistan, and many helos have been disassembled and transferred to Pakistan as of middle of August.

Mort Ji, what’s the source?

TSP stealing MRAP and Helos from Astan is serious.

[chetak]

According to various sources, hundreds of MRAP Humvees, these are the heavily armored ones which can easily survive IEDs and landmines, have already been transferred to the Pak Army. There are so many Humvees out there, that many are abandoned along with other derelict equipment between Kabul and Jalalabad, which will be bombed by US military later this week, who will then claim victory.

Some 50-60 helos with pilots defected to Uzbekistan, and many helos have been disassembled and transferred to Pakistan as of middle of August.

naxals have been using huge IED type buried land mines that can throw heavy vehicles 60-80 feet away in the explosion. I wonder if anyone could survive such an explosion without very serious injury, if not outright death

they use ammonium nitrate and other available explosives to build such huge buried mines and trigger them from some distance away.

even these vehicles are not designed to survive a ton or two of explosive power

[Mort Walker]

According to various sources, hundreds of MRAP Humvees, these are the heavily armored ones which can easily survive IEDs and landmines, have already been transferred to the Pak Army. There are so many Humvees out there, that many are abandoned along with other derelict equipment between Kabul and Jalalabad, which will be bombed by US military later this week, who will then claim victory.

Some 50-60 helos with pilots defected to Uzbekistan, and many helos have been disassembled and transferred to Pakistan as of middle of August.

Mort Ji, what’s the source?

TSP stealing MRAP and Helos from Astan is serious.

Taliban smuggle US Humvees and fighting vehicles into Pakistan to sell to terrorists



The helos and parts being smuggled out come from Lara Logan's interview which was posted earlier. What we don't know besides the huge cache of small arms, optics, secure radios and ammo are - what other anti-personnel weapons the ANA had from the US? US military assistance was something over $18 billion USD over the last 20 years. Of course that includes training and maintenance contracts, but still a lot of useable arms in the last 5-7 years.

[Tanaji]

It is not unreasonable to assume that ANA would have been given Claymores and M2 Brownings, the latter may be a standard fit on MRAPS. The former are very nasty for a IA platoon on patrol, the latter arent that practical….

There is no way this was unplanned and happenstance. Its a calculated previously agreed deal.


All in all a massive headache.

[Mort Walker]

Of course this is entirely planned. One more headache for the GoI. The current US president is ENTIRELY responsible for this. By next spring, the IA will be capturing US assault and automatic rifles, ammunition, mines, explosives, grenades.

[Bart S]

Windfall for the Pakistani Army. Some of those Assualt rifles with Night vision googles will definitely be used in Kashmir.

US has got to have done this deliberately, cant be an accident that they didn't airlift the stuff out before the pull out decesion.

It is the secure communication devices that are going to cause the most damage and will be the most difficult to counter. These will be deployed in cashmere, punjab and rajasthan sectors as also along the border areas including nepal and beediland where drug running and infiltration routes already exist

The encryption may be very difficult to break unless uncle gives us the means to do so.

The communication equipment would likely not be usable by Bunnies/Porkies as it requires a significant software ecosystem and probably has been/will be soft-killed by the US military.