Friday, November 14, 2014

EXCLUSIVE - 'His arms and stomach were missing': Family of Afghan officer slain by Taliban reveal hell of Helmand as top cop reveals he is forced to leave dead troops rotting in sun because Britain and U.S. left too soon

EXCLUSIVE - 'His arms and stomach were missing': Family of Afghan officer slain by Taliban reveal hell of Helmand as top cop reveals he is forced to leave dead troops rotting in sun because Britain and U.S. left too soon

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2825122/Family-Afghan-officer-slain-Taliban-reveal-hell-life-Helmand-police-officer-says-Britain-America-left-SOON.html

  • Abdul Isakzai died trying to thwart suicide bomber at police checkpoint
  • Hero 'tried to wrap his arms around attacker just before blast'
  • As the eldest of 10 children he was sole earner - now family are destitute 
  • 4,600 Afghan forces - 15 a day - have been killed fighting Taliban this year
  • Now police chief accuses British and U.S. of pulling out of conflict too early
  • He says: 'The Taliban are much stronger now than three years ago'
  • 'We do not even have helicopters to collect dead, they lie rotting for a week'
Brigadier General Juma Gul Hirat is bitterly disappointed at the facilities and equipment left behind by Britain and America to fight the Taliban 
Brigadier General Juma Gul Hirat is bitterly disappointed at the facilities and equipment left behind by Britain and America to fight the Taliban 

The top police officer in Helmand has attacked Britain and America for destroying key equipment in their 'hurry' to leave Afghanistan - and accused western forces of leaving too soon.

As death rates for Afghan forces soar in the wake of the Nato withdrawal, Brigadier General Juma Gul Hirat said he had  been dumped without proper equipment or a secure border.

'The foreign troops left this area in a hurry. They should have waited,' he said in an interview with MailOnline. 'They said they came here to finish the centres of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. But Al Qaeda is not finished in Afghanistan.'

He spoke as the family of a police officer killed in a recent suicide attack revealed how his body was torn apart by the blast to highlight the 'hell' they are living through. 

Abdul Satar Isakzai, a 19-year-old Afghan officer, was slain in a Taliban suicide bomb when an insurgent dressed as an officer drove up to a police compound three weeks ago.

'When they took his body, his arms and stomach were missing,' his mother told MailOnline, revealing that he had tried to stop the blast by wrapping his arms around the attacker who struck a police compound.

He was one of two officers and five others who died when the suicide bomber dressed in a police uniform targeted his checkpoint 555km south of capital Kabul.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing.  

Uncertain future: The family of a 19-year-old Afghan police officer who was their sole income-earner mourn his loss after he was killed attempting to thwart a suicide bomber who targeted at checkpoint in Helmand Province
Uncertain future: The family of a 19-year-old Afghan police officer who was their sole income-earner mourn his loss after he was killed attempting to thwart a suicide bomber who targeted at checkpoint in Helmand Province
Stricken with grief: One of Abdul Satar Isakzai's brothers hold his picture. His mother says they are terrified what will happen to them without any income and her husband still in prison for a year for a traffic accident
Stricken with grief: One of Abdul Satar Isakzai's brothers hold his picture. His mother says they are terrified what will happen to them without any income and her husband still in prison for a year for a traffic accident
Terrified: Abdul's mother and aunt are now alone in the house with teenage daughters and the children
Terrified: Abdul's mother and aunt are now alone in the house with teenage daughters and the children

His family, who live in Helmand's capital Lashkar Gah, know that despite the pull-out of foreign forces, they are entering one of the deadliest phases of the war so far. 

His mother and aunt are now alone in the house with teenage daughters and the children, a serious concern for them in light of the traditional values around the proper conduct of women in the Pashtun south.

'It is just us alone. We cannot even open the door to anyone if they knock,' the aunt said. They will only answer the door if Isakzai's 15-year-old cousin is present to open it.   
Brigadier General Juma Gul Hirat said they are one of too many families who cannot be adequately protected. But he added that in addition to lacking vital equipment to retaliate against insurgents, his men are forced to leave their dead soldiers rotting in the sun for a week because they do not have a single helicopter to collect them.

'The Taliban is much stronger today than they were even three years ago,' he said. 
'Why did [the foreign forces] destroy their bases? Why did they take hundreds of tanks to Pakistan? Why did they destroy their equipment, their new generators, their tunnels?

'I saw a $200,000 (£120,000) generator cut in two pieces. The only thing they left us were empty containers. There were once 186 bases of the British here. They destroyed most of them.

'I tried to stop them. There are questions to be asked and it's a question among the people of Afghanistan. 
Suicide attack: Abdul Satar Isakzai, a 19-year-old Afghan officer, was slain in a Taliban suicide bomb when an insurgent dressed as an officer drove up to a police compound in Lashkar Gah
Suicide attack: Abdul Satar Isakzai, a 19-year-old Afghan officer, was slain in a Taliban suicide bomb when an insurgent dressed as an officer drove up to a police compound in Lashkar Gah
Helmand police chief Brigadier General Juma Gul Hirat (above) has criticised Nato-led troops for leaving too early, insisting the number of Afghan casualties would have been lower with their continued support
Helmand police chief Brigadier General Juma Gul Hirat (above) has criticised Nato-led troops for leaving too early, insisting the number of Afghan casualties would have been lower with their continued support

AFGHAN FORCES DYING IN RECORD NUMBERS, WARNS HEAD OF NATO 

Afghan security forces are dying in record numbers because they have assumed a leading role in the fight against Taliban insurgents as foreign forces shift from combat to training and support, the head of NATO has said.

Figures show that more Afghan security forces - army and police - have been killed fighting so far this year than in all of last year, with the casualty rate up 6.5 per cent.
This year 4,634 have been killed in action, compared to 4,350 in 2013. 

By comparison, some 3,500 foreign forces, including at least 2,210 American soldiers, have been killed since the war began in 2001.

'The increase in casualties among the Afghan forces reflects that they are now in the lead,' said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who is currently visiting Afghanistan.

NATO is set to conclude its combat mission in Afghanistan by the end of the year, more than 13 years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban following the September 11 attacks. 

Some 12,000 U.S. and NATO troops will remain in a training and support capacity. 
NATO will provide $4.1 billion in annual funding to the Afghan defense forces, enabling them to 'pay salaries, buy equipment, conduct training, all this aiming at both making them more capable, but of course reducing the number of casualties,' Stoltenberg said. 

'Many of our casualties are troops who die from their wounds, lying in the dirt. But with the right equipment they could have lived. I tell you, these are problems that should not be here.' 

A staggering 4,600 Afghan forces - up to 15 a day - have been killed fighting insurgents since the start of the year as they now battle to retain control without the full help of the Nato-led military

Brigadier General Juma Gul Hirat says casualties would be far lower if they had been left with better support.

'We see Arabs fighting here. In Sangin [district of Helmand], they were organising their soldiers in Arabic, Chechen, Punjabi. We could hear that through the radio.'
He added: 'For the presence and sacrifices of our international friends, we are very grateful. But you shouldn't leave your friends halfway.'

Not only are the ANSF insufficiently manned and equipped, Hirat said, they are also facing a tougher enemy.

'They are more organised, they have more weapons and more sophisticated weapons. Before, they might have had one PK machine gun between 100 of their men. 
'Now they have one between 20 or even between five of them. The Taliban now are not the Taliban of yesterday.'

The dismantling of British bases and removal of modern equipment has left many in the Afghan forces devastated, Hirat said.

He added: 'The biggest loss that we face in Helmand is the IED [improvised explosive device]. 

'In the whole province of Helmand, we don't even have one IMV, the modern equipment you use to detect them.' 

The Nato-led mission has had as a primary aim over the past 13 years to build the Afghan national security forces across the army and police. 

But Hirat said they seemed more focused on the quantity, rather than the quality.
'In the end, they didn't even pay attention to that – to the quantity – because we do not have enough for what our needs are.  

'Afghanistan needs a security force of at least 500,000. We are facing Al Qaeda and international terrorist organisations!' he said.

'They should have built the ANA and ANP to stand stronger on their own feet. They could have helped secure the border better. 

'Of the 180km border we share with Pakistan, we don't even control five per cent. The Taliban are able to easily take their injured across the border for treatment.
'We don't have air support. With two helicopters in the district of Sangin, we could at least bring out our dead bodies. 

'Our dead spend a week there, smelling. Those who were wounded have gotten worse because we didn't have any help to transfer them.' 
British soldiers lower the Union Jack during a handover ceremony before their military withdrawal from the Camp Bastion-Leatherneck complex at Lashkar Gah in Helmand province, Afghanistan on October 26, 2014
The last Union flag of Great Britain flying above the skies of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, is lowered by Captain Matthew Clark, left, and Warrant Officer 1 John Lilley, who will hand the flag to Brigadier Rob Thomson who will return the Union flag back to the UK after a ceremony at Camp Bastion signifying the end of combat operations in Helmand by British and ISAF forces
Exit: British soldiers lower the Union flag during a handover ceremony before their military withdrawal from the Camp Bastion-Leatherneck complex at Lashkar Gah in Helmand province, Afghanistan on October 26
Last goodbye: Wing Commander Matt Radnall carries a folded Union Flag under his arm and back home to the UK as he walks out towards helicopter as the last British boots to leave Camp Bastion in Helmand Province
Last goodbye: Wing Commander Matt Radnall carries a folded Union Flag under his arm and back home to the UK as he walks out towards helicopter as the last British boots to leave Camp Bastion in Helmand Province
Hirat said he did not think the British should never have left Afghanistan, adding that it was a 'positive step'.

However, his complaint is that there was not enough foresight to think of ANSF's needs before they withdrew, such as providing them the technology used to gather intelligence like the reconnaissance balloon and drones.

'Without these things, our casualties increase. When the casualties increase, morale is lost. 

Sangin, a district north of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, was where the British saw their greatest number of soldiers killed in their 13-year military involvement. Hirat said it is the same for ANSF.

After more than five months of fierce fighting between the Afghan forces and the insurgents in Sangin, ANSF holds only the town centre and the main road running through the district to Helmand's north.

Hirat equated the significance of Sangin to a battle for the country's capital, Kabul. 
'There is no doubt that if Sangin falls to the Taliban then the Taliban will take control of Helmand's northern districts, and then the south. 

'Then the provinces of Uruzgan and Kandahar will fall. And then the Taliban will take the south of Afghanistan.' 

Deserted: Compounds at Camp Bastion as the last soldier left the British base at the end of last month
Deserted: Compounds at Camp Bastion as the last soldier left the British base at the end of last month
Empty: Tented accommodation is left deserted in Camp Bastion after it was handed over to Afghan forces
Empty: Tented accommodation is left deserted in Camp Bastion after it was handed over to Afghan forces

The road to Sangin is understood to be a key route for drug smugglers, another factor in its significance. 

However, Hirat said it is not only the drug traders – nor for that matter any one group – solely supporting the Taliban fight to take the district from government control.

'Not even the [Pakistan intelligence arm] ISI has the budget to fund this war,' Hirat said.

He believes there are multiple players backing the insurgents, with Iran more involved since the Afghan government signed the Bilateral Security Agreement with the U.S. earlier this year allowing the Americans to maintain a military presence in Afghanistan.   
Rubble: A US soldier walks past a pile of discarded wooden panels and debris - nicknamed 'Mount Trashmore' by the soldiers - during ongoing demolition work at Bagram Air Base near Kabul
Rubble: A US soldier walks past a pile of discarded wooden panels and debris - nicknamed 'Mount Trashmore' by the soldiers - during ongoing demolition work at Bagram Air Base near Kabul
Demolition: A US Army excavator demolishes a structure at Bagram Air Base, leaving a cloud of dust
Demolition: A US Army excavator demolishes a structure at Bagram Air Base, leaving a cloud of dust
Air base: A US soldier carries wooden boards out of a structure during ongoing demolition work
Air base: A US soldier carries wooden boards out of a structure during ongoing demolition work

When the Afghan forces have captured Taliban bases or searched Taliban corpses, they have found enormous amounts of ammunition – almost double what ANSF has – and items such as battery brands that cannot be purchased in Afghanistan.
'The whole region is involved,' Hirat said.

Despite international opinions regarding the Taliban as part of Afghanistan, the majority of Afghans despise them, Hirat said.

'The people of Afghanistan and the people of Helmand hate the Taliban. But the Taliban force them to co-operate. 

'They are ruthless and they create fear. They use brutal tactics to force people to give them food and for their sons to join them. They take everything by force.'

He cited an example where the people of a northern district in Helmand called Baghran have been asking often for help to fight the Islamic militants under whose control they have been living for years. 
Scourge of the drug trade: Soldiers attempt to eradicate a poppy field in Helmand Province in 2005
Scourge of the drug trade: Soldiers attempt to eradicate a poppy field in Helmand Province in 2005

Hirat said he does not know why the international forces left Afghanistan when they did, citing among other reasons perhaps the number of casualties they were suffering. 

Nevertheless, he believes the war against insurgents in Afghanistan still belongs to the world.

'I am amazed when I see the fight in Iraq and Syria to stop ISIS. Afghanistan is no different. This is the world's fight,' Hirat said.

'When the U.S. was targeted 14 years ago [in the September 11 attacks], it was seen as the world's fight because the U.S. was targeted from here. 

'So why not now? What has changed? I tell you: if Afghanistan becomes a safe haven for terrorism again, none of the world is safe.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2825122/Family-Afghan-officer-slain-Taliban-reveal-hell-life-Helmand-police-officer-says-Britain-America-left-SOON.html#ixzz3J3KjWzX4
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