Mass Slaughter Predicted Within The Coming Days.

3 Comments / 3 Comments

1. @Adam
   None of this was unintended.

2. This is a column from Arutz Sheva by a soldier who has served both with the iDF and as an independent contractor” for the U.S Air Force.

   The sordid secret behind the defeat of the Afghan military
   To understand the defeat of ANDSF by the Taliban, we must know how the United States Armed Forces trained the Afghan military. Op-ed..

   IDF SSgt. (res.) Ben Kerido
   Airplanes
   A question that many of us have been asking ourselves is how the Afghan military collapsed so quickly in the face of the Taliban assault. After all, it seems like it was only a month ago that Biden assured the American people that a Taliban take-over of Afghanistan was “not inevitable”…

   Oh wait, it was just a month ago… during a press briefing on July 8th, to be precise. In that press briefing Biden stressed that the ANDSF (Afghan National Defense and Security Forces) was comprised of approximately 300,000 trained soldiers with weaponry and equipment pitted against about 75,000 Taliban militants. Therefore, there was really no chance of the disaster scenario in Kabul we see unfolding before our very eyes – or so he said.

   In that case how did the Taliban rout and defeat a force as much as four times its size in months or even weeks? After all, when the Soviets left Afghanistan in 1989, it took the Mujahideen about three years to topple the government. As Biden withdrew US forces, the Afghans didn’t even last a month.

   When Biden finally addressed the world regarding Afghanistan on August 16th, 2021, he presented a theory regarding the rapid capitulation of the ANDSF. He stated:

   “The Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight… We gave them every tool they could need. We paid their salaries, provided for the maintenance of their air force… What we could not provide them was the will to fight for that future… if Afghanistan is unable to mount any real resistance to the Taliban now, there is no chance that… U.S. military boots on the ground would have made any difference.”

   The Biden administration may wish to console themselves that the responsibility for the abysmal failure of the ANDSF lies solely in the hands of their Afghan allies, but there is a sordid secret just beneath the surface of his blame-shifting rhetoric.

   In order to understand what happened in Afghanistan in the fight of ANDSF against the Taliban, we must first understand how the United States Armed Forces trained the Afghan military. The American military designed the ANDSF to follow an Air / ISR (Intelligence, Support, Reconnaissance) model. In simple terms that means that the Afghan ground troops rely heavily on both detailed and accurate intelligence and especially on strong air support. In other words, the effectiveness of the Afghan military is severely diminished without a functioning air force and efficient intelligence gathering and communication.

   A US Department of Defense Inspector General report to Congress at the end of 2020 emphasized that an international collection of private defense contractors supplemented these functions and were absolutely crucial to the maintenance of the Afghan air force. Without the private contractors, the report indicated that the Afghan military and the air force in particular would collapse almost immediately.

   Similarly, Bradley Bowman, the senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies as well as a former US Army officer and Black Hawk helicopter pilot who served valiantly in Afghanistan, concurred. In June of 2021 – two months before the fall of Kabul – Bowman declared to the media:

   “We’re talking about the more or less grounding of the Afghan air force… Air power is arguably the Afghan government’s main edge in its fight with the Taliban. If we don’t help them maintain those aircraft, then the Afghan security forces will be deprived of that advantage, and that could have a decisive impact on the battlefield and ultimately on the state of the Afghan government.”

   The Biden administration didn’t listen.

   By July of 2021 the 18,000 vitally-important private contractors – including the crucial collection of aircraft maintenance personnel – were diminished to well under 8,000 as part of Biden’s withdrawal. The Biden administration essentially hamstrung the Afghan forces while they were actively engaged in heavy battle against the Taliban militants. In that context the Afghan military failed against – and in some cases fled from – the vicious Taliban onslaught. That is the sordid secret behind the failure of the ANDSF in their struggle against the Taliban.

   An analogy could be made to a teacher instructing her students how to solve complex mathematical equations with the assistance of a calculator. But just as their final test commences, the teacher removes the batteries from her students’ calculators. Some of the students futilely try to solve the math problems with great difficulty; others are discouraged and walk out, knowing that a failing grade is inevitable. When the entire class fails, the teacher then berates them, claiming that their own unwillingness to learn or take their education seriously is to blame.

   This is precisely what Biden did on August 16th, 2021. He even lied and falsely claimed specifically that the US was still adequately maintaining the Afghan air force when in reality he had already sent most of the contracted maintenance crews home. Even worse, rather than admit that his administration rejected the strong counsel of his own defense officials and ultimately crippled the Afghan military at their greatest hour of need, Biden instead had the audacity and the chutzpah to falsely accuse his demoralized Afghan allies of disloyalty, lack of motivation, and even cowardice.

   With “friends” like these, no wonder the Afghans shrugged in despair and acquiesced to the Taliban takeover.

   Ssgt. Ben Kerido is an IDF Paratrooper and Special Forces reservist, former US Department of Defense contractor, defense magazine article contributor, and author of the blog series “Inside Stories of the Israel Defense Force”and “Ramblings of a Reservist” on Lehavdil.com.

3. This is from the New York Post. The NYP seems to be the only English-language source that I have been able to locate that gives a detailed, well-reseached account of IS-K , its history and terrorist activities over the years, and it links to other terror groups.

   Who are ISIS-K? What to know about the terrorist group in Afghanistan
   By Bruce Golding
   Thursday’s deadly twin bomb blasts outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, immediately focused attention on the local affiliate of the ISIS terror group, known as ISIS-K, which reportedly claimed responsibility for the carnage.

   Just two days ago, President Biden warned that “every day we’re on the ground is another day we know that ISIS-K is seeking to target the airport and attack both US and allied forces and innocent civilians.”

   Here are some facts about the Islamic extremists who Biden also called a “sworn enemy of the Taliban,” which regained control of Afghanistan amid the pullout of US troops nearly two decades after the Sept. 11 terror attacks:

   What are ISIS-K’s origins?

   ISIS-K is also known as the Islamic State Khorasan, which is named for a historical region in Central Asia that includes part of Afghanistan.

   It was established in 2015 after the late ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi chose Pakistani national Hafiz Saeed Khan, a veteran commander of the Terik-e Taliban Pakistan, as the group’s first “emir,” or chief, according to a 2018 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

   Khan brought along many TTP members, including spokesman Sheikh Maqbool and several district chiefs, when he pledged allegiance to al-Baghdadi in October 2014 and many of them were part of its first leadership council, known as the Khorasan Shura.

   Former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who committed suicide during a raid by US special operation forces on his compound in Syria on October 26, 2019.
   Former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who committed suicide during a raid by US special operation forces on his compound in Syria on October 26, 2019.
   Department of Defense/UPI
   Former Taliban commander Abdul Rauf Kadim was appointed as Khan’s deputy and ISIS-K’s first fighters included a contingent of Pakistanis from the TTP and Lashkar-e Islam terror groups.

   Other terrorists from Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the Haqqani Network, and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan also defected to ISIS-K.

   What kind of strength does the terrorist group have?

   ISIS-K’s ranks swelled to an all-time high of between 3,000 and 4,000 in 2016, amid the widespread capture of terrorism in Syria and Iraq by ISIS and a rash of international attacks, including the killing of eight people who were mowed down by a truck — allegedly driven by an ISIS sympathizer — on Manhattan’s West Side bike path in October 2017.

   But ISIS-K suffered “successive military setbacks that began in Jowzjan,” a province in northern Afghanistan, in the summer of 2018, according to a June report to the United Nations Security Council by its Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team.

   ISIS sympathizer Sayfullo Saipov mowed down eight New Yorkers on Manhattan’s West Side bike path on October 31, 2017.
   ISIS sympathizer Sayfullo Saipov mowed down eight New Yorkers on Manhattan’s West Side bike path on October 31, 2017.
   EPA/JASON SZENES

   By October 2018, following the US-led campaign to dismantle the ISIS caliphate, ISIS-K’s fighting force had dwindled to between 1,500 and 2,000, according to the CSIS.

   And despite suffering losses of territory, leadership, manpower and financing last year, ISIS-S still retains a core force of about 1,500 to 2,200 fighters based in small areas of the Kunar and Nangarhar provinces east of Kabul, according to the UN report.

   Although the group has “been forced to decentralize and consists primarily of cells and small groups … acting in an autonomous manner,” it “continues to pose a threat to both the country and the wider region,” the report says.

   Who’s part of ISIS-K leadership?

   ISIS-K’s first leader, Khan, was killed, along with 30 other insurgents, by US drone strike in July 2015 while they were plotting at a meeting in Nangarhar Province’s southern Achin district, which borders Pakistan.

   He was replaced by Abdul Hasib, who was taken out by US and Afghan special forces in April 2017 after ordering a series of high-profile attacks, including one on the main military hospital in Kabul.

   Hasib’s successor, Abu Sayed, only lasted about two months before he and a bunch of cronies were killed in a strike on the group’s headquarters in Kunar province.

   Since June 2020, ISIS-K has been led by Shahab al-Muhajir, also known as “Sanaullah,” who took over after Afghan special forces captured his predecessor, Aslam Farooqi, and other senior members, including former leader Zia ul-Haq, according to the UN report.

   Al-Muhajir is suspected to have previously been a mid-level commander in the Haqqani Network and may still cooperate with that terror group, which provides “key expertise and access to [attack] networks,” the report said.

   What other atrocities is it responsible for?

   Recent attacks for which ISIS-K has claimed responsibility include the May 2020 slaughter of at least 16 people — including two newborns and nurses — in a maternity ward in Kabul run by the Doctors Without Borders charity.

   In November, it also claimed responsibility for an hours-long rampage by two gunmen at Kabul University that killed at least 22 people, including students who were shot in their classrooms as hundreds of others fled in terror, scrambling over the school’s protective walls and fences.

   Later that same month, ISIS-K launched a mortar attack in residential Kabul that killed eight people and which the group said had targeted the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the Afghan presidential palace, military compounds and foreign embassies.

   A security force member and a health worker carry babies following a terrorist attack led by ISIS on a maternity hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 12, 2020.
   A security force member and a health worker carry babies following a terrorist attack led by ISIS on a maternity hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 12, 2020.
   CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA/Shutterstock
   In December, ISIS-K fired rockets at the airport in Kabul, according to the UN report, which said the group was also blamed or took responsibility for 77 attacks during the first four months of this year — nearly four times as many as the 21 recorded during the same period in 2020.

   This year’s carnage by ISIS-K is believed to include a car bomb attack outside a girls’ school in Kabul that was followed by two additional, coordinated blasts that targeted fleeing survivors.

   Students accounted for most of the at least 68 killed, and another 165 people were wounded.

   ISIS-K propaganda photo showing their fighters.
   ISIS-K propaganda photo showing their fighters.
   And just last week, a report by the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General also found that ISIS-K had “exploited the political instability and rise in violence during the [period from April 1 through June 30] by attacking minority sectarian targets and infrastructure to spread fear and highlight the Afghan government’s inability to provide adequate security.”

   What is the relationship between ISIS-K and the Taliban?

   ISIS-K reportedly considers the Taliban insufficiently devoted to fundamentalist Islam, even though the latter group was notorious for its brutal enforcement of religious law — especially against Afghan women and girls, and the LGBTQ community — when it formerly controlled the country.

   In an unconfirmed statement claiming responsibility for Thursday’s airport attack, ISIS-K reportedly accused the Taliban of being “in a partnership” with the US military to evacuate “spies” from Afghanistan.

   It also reportedly claimed that a suicide bomber “managed to penetrate all the security measures imposed by the American forces and the Taliban militia in the capital Kabul,” according to a series of tweets by Evan Kohlmann, a co-founder of the Flashpoint intelligence consulting company.

   ISIS-K has focused recent recruitment and training efforts on Taliban members opposed to the peace process initiated by former President Donald Trump, according to the UN report, which warned that extremists “who are not willing to be controlled by the Taliban” could seek to join ISIS-K.

   The two groups have even launched deadly attacks on each other, with the Taliban viewing ISIS-K as a threat to both it and its ally, the Haqqani network, according to USA Today.

   “They maintain these capabilities, and those are the reasons they and the Taliban are mortal enemies – because ISIS-K represents a competitor,” Douglas London, the CIA’s former top counterterrorism chief for the region, told the paper.

   “They represent a competitor for resources, materials and power, even though they’re relatively small.”