By THOMAS GIBBONS-NEFF together with JAWAD SUKHANYAR
Once described every bit an ill-equipped band of insurgents, the Taliban are increasingly attacking safety forces across Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan using night-vision goggles together with lasers that U.S. of A. military machine officials said were either stolen from Afghan together with international troops or bought on the dark market. The devices allow the Taliban to maneuver on forces nether the encompass of darkness every bit they rails the whirling blades of coalition helicopters, the infrared lasers on American rifles, or fifty-fifty the bedtime movements of local police describe officers. With this novel battlefield visibility, the Taliban to a greater extent than than doubled nighttime attacks from 2014 to 2017, according to 1 U.S. of A. military machine official who described internal Pentagon information on the status of anonymity. The release of Afghans who were wounded or killed during nighttime attacks during that catamenia nearly tripled.
That has forced American commanders to rethink the express access they give Afghan safety forces to the night-vision devices. Commanders instantly worry that denying the expensive equipment to those forces puts them at a technological disadvantage, alongside potentially lethal consequences.
For years, American commanders bring been reluctant to give night-vision equipment to rank-and-file Afghan soldiers together with police describe officers out of employment organisation of widespread corruption amidst those forces. The devices — headsets together with infrared lasers — are unremarkably given solely to elite Afghan commandos together with police describe special mission units, according to American military machine officials.
As some of this equipment falls into Taliban hands, the militants are joining a larger trend, said David W. Barno, a retired lieutenant full general who led the state of war exertion inwards Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005. Advanced equipment, such every bit drones together with precision weapons, is beingness seized past times other extremist groups inwards other global conflict zones, he said.
“It’s going to live a problem,” Mr. Barno said, “and it’s going to modify how nosotros operate.”
With the spread of the devices, infantry units on patrols bring been told non to purpose sure as shooting marker devices that tin live seen solely past times night-vision equipment. Helicopter crews bring been made distinctly aware that their aircraft are no longer cloaked past times darkness.
In 1 representative lastly November, Taliban fighters wearing night-vision goggles attacked a police describe outpost inwards Farah Province, inwards western Afghanistan. By the fourth dimension the predawn laid on was over, 8 Afghan officers lay dead inwards their beds, Haji Abdul Rahman Aka, the elderberry of the province’s Pule Regi area, said at the time. Only 1 Afghan officeholder survived.
The frequency together with ferocity of the nighttime Taliban attacks are linked to attempts past times Afghan forces, based inwards modest checkpoints across the country, to concur territory that has been wrested away from the militants.
Previously unreported documents, obtained past times The New York Times, underline concerns nearly the Taliban’s growing sophistication on the battlefield after xvi years of state of war — together with American commanders’ efforts to stunt it.
The documents exhibit that the American military machine has begun to shipping older models of night-vision hardware to regular Afghan Army units. Those headsets terms an estimated $3,000 each, officials said.
One of the start out batches of night-vision equipment for conventional units inwards southern Afghanistan, component subdivision of a monthslong airplane pilot program, was sent to the embattled 215th Corps inwards Helmand Province inwards the jump of 2016.
Only 161 of the 210 devices were returned, according to the military machine documents obtained past times The Times, together with the equipment was non effectively used, inwards component subdivision because the forces were non properly trained to purpose it.
Afghan troops said the missing devices were reported every bit “battle losses,” but could non back upwardly that claim alongside whatever proof or records to explicate where or when they were left behind, according to the documents.
At the time, the commander of the 215th Corps was Maj. Gen. M. Moein Faqir. He was afterwards arrested on sweeping corruption charges that included misuse of nutrient coin meant for his troops.
Last year, together with alongside improve results, night-vision equipment was sent to the 205th Corps, located approximately Kandahar, the military machine documents showed.
Five devices were lost betwixt July together with December, when the computer program ended, according to the documents. Over the summertime together with fall, the Afghan National Army suffered xv pct fewer casualties approximately Kandahar than it had during the same catamenia inwards 2016.
The documents credited the night-vision equipment for the marked reduction, final that the devices are “becoming an integral component subdivision of base of operations defence strength plans.” The American military machine is instantly planning to equip the unit of measurement alongside roughly 2,500 night-vision goggles every bit component subdivision of what the documents described every bit a concept for a “permanent program.”
Despite those measured successes, it remains unclear if the American military machine volition give the devices to the balance of the Afghan Army.
The American military machine headquarters inwards Kabul has said it equips solely Special Operations units inwards the Afghan Army together with police describe forces alongside night-vision technology.
Capt. Tom Gresback, a spokesman for U.S. of A. forces inwards Afghanistan, declined to comment on the plans to distribute the devices to the Afghan National Army, every bit outlined inwards the military machine documents. He said American commanders would render Afghan national defence strength together with safety forces “with the resources necessary to promote safety throughout Afghanistan.”
But some American advisers closer to the dry soil struggle are already trying to larn the engineering scientific discipline for their Afghan counterparts, according to a U.S. of A. official. He said that would postulate a conclusion made through the leadership inwards Kabul together with the Pentagon to allow American commanders to distribute the devices to fifty-fifty to a greater extent than Afghan safety forces.
With the night-vision devices, Taliban fighters bring been able to approach Afghan bases nearly undetected earlier attacking.
Initially, such ambushes were attributed to Taliban forces known every bit “Red Units” located inwards Afghanistan’s southern provinces. But over the lastly year, the night-vision devices bring oft turned upwardly inwards the country’s northward together with east, according to 2 American military machine officials, signaling a widespread distribution into other groups of Taliban fighters.
Those officials said the Taliban were using both tightly controlled American-made devices together with gear that is widely available for purchase. In some cases, American officials said, the equipment was left on the battlefield past times U.S. of A. or Afghan troops, including those who were killed inwards action.
In others, Afghan soldiers are believed to bring sold the devices to the extremists.
That was disputed past times Gen. Dawlat Waziri, who until of late served every bit spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense. He said all night-vision equipment provided to Afghan troops past times the American military machine had been “accounted for.”
“No representative of nighttime vision sold past times our soldiers to the Taliban has been reported,” General Waziri said.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said fighters obtained night-vision devices after attacking Afghan bases or capturing members of the Afghan safety forces.
Rank-and-file Afghan police describe officers are specially nether threat past times increasing numbers of deadly nighttime attacks, said 1 of the American military machine officials. Those units are spread further into sparsely populated areas across Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan than are regular army soldiers.
Officers alongside the Afghan National Police, especially inwards the south, bring been making desperate requests for the equipment for months, the official said. The police describe are component subdivision of the Ministry of Interior, which is suspected of rampant corruption.
In Helmand Province, Marine Corps advisers are helping a asking past times the 505th Zone of the Afghan National Police to have night-vision devices, Col. C.J. Douglas, the caput of the Marines’ police describe advising ingredient there, said inwards an email.
It is unclear if the Afghan police describe unit of measurement volition larn them.
Thomas Gibbons-Neff reported from Washington together with Jawad Sukhanyar from Kabul. Taimoor Shah contributed from Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Buat lebih berguna, kongsi:
