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Afghanistan
Afghan Hero and his whole squad Killed by Taliban in Massacre
2021-06-21
[WashingtonPost] KABUL — He was a general's son, a U.S.-trained officer with a dazzling academic record and a daring military reputation.

Col. Sohrab Azimi, a field commander in Afghan special forces that often rescue troops and retake outposts from Taliban attacks, symbolized the country's best hope to fend off an insurgent takeover as U.S. troops began to withdraw from the fight.

Azimi, 31, and his squad of 22 men were massacred Wednesday by Taliban forces while defending a base in northern Faryab province and waiting for reinforcements.

At a ceremony outside a military hospital in Kabul on Saturday morning, a Muslim cleric blessed the velvet-draped coffins of Azimi and two other commandos, released by the Taliban and flown to Kabul by the Afghan Air Force.

They were lifted onto artillery trucks, followed by goose-stepping soldiers and a marching band, then loaded into ambulances.

But in Faryab, one of numerous provinces where the Taliban has launched repeated assaults in recent months, the mass killing added to a deepening sense of despair and defeat. After weeks of attacks that wore down local security forces and led many to surrender, the highly trained commandos sent to save the day had been surrounded, isolated and mowed down en masse.

“Government forces don’t have the will to fight. Their morale is weak and there is little coordination among the forces,” Sayed Babur Jamal, a provincial legislator, said Saturday.

He said the insurgents control eight districts in Faryab and continue to overrun military and police bases, seizing military vehicles and weapons from surrendering local forces.

“There is a strong possibility that Faryab will fall,” he said.

Officials say the pace and aggression of Taliban attacks have increased since the Biden administration announced in April that all remaining troops would be withdrawn by Sept. 11. In some areas, local forces have surrendered after negotiations between community elders and the Taliban. In others, departing U.S. troops have destroyed bases or stripped them of everything usable to keep them from falling into Taliban hands.

Despite the drumbeat of attacks, military officials play down the significance of local Taliban advances and note that many are quickly reversed. After the commando slayings in Faryab’s Dawlat Abad district, the district was recaptured by Afghan forces by Thursday, with insurgents suffering heavy casualties, authorities said.

For the Taliban, Azimi’s killing was a potential propaganda coup.

The group released a video showing him with bullet holes in his chest, lying amid the corpses of men he had led in battle. But Azimi’s father, Zahir, a former Defense Ministry spokesman, wrote on Facebook that he felt pride when he saw the bullets had struck his son from the front.

“You fought face to face with your enemy until the last moment,” he wrote.

In an interview at his home Friday, the elder Azimi also noted that his son — who studied in the United States and Turkey, held several academic degrees and married an American citizen — could have easily chosen a prestigious desk job or foreign posting.

“He had many opportunities, but he wanted to go into operations. Regular Afghan families related to him, those who lost husbands and sons,” he said.

The elder Azimi, 67, who fought Taliban extremists before they took power in 1996, said he was disturbed by the lack of planning that had preceded the dangerous mission in Faryab, leaving the commandos with no backup.

He said that with up to 50 of 370 Afghan districts under Taliban control or attack, it would be better to temporarily withdraw from some vulnerable areas and prevent bloodshed.

The ex-general said he respected Biden’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces but that the president was wrong to rush into the pullout just months after U.S. officials signed a deal with Taliban leaders.

“[The Taliban] came to believe they were winning, and they began to attract thousands of volunteer fighters and support from abroad,” he said. “They have a lot more capacity now.”
Related:
Sohrab Azimi: 2021-06-18 Afghan forces clear 2 districts off from Taliban in northern Faryab province: MOD
Posted by:Lord Garth

#3  The enemy doesn't really care that you're a hero, unless they capture you. Then it gets really unpleasant.
Posted by: ed in texas   2021-06-21 16:57  

#2  "The ex-general said he respected Biden’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces but that the president was wrong to rush into the pullout just months after U.S. officials signed a deal with Taliban leaders."

Wanna Bet he says that in private?


“[The Taliban] came to believe they were winning, and they began to attract thousands of volunteer fighters and support from abroad,” he said. “They have a lot more capacity now.”

That's because they are.
Posted by: Sonny Black   2021-06-21 07:20  

#1  Sadly, a lot more of this type of activity is likely to come. Political assassination and police Whac-A-Mole strategies simply do not work. A twenty year blinding flash of the obvious.
Posted by: Besoeker   2021-06-21 04:27  

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