Afghan soldiers ‘co-operating with the Taliban and signing ceasefire deals’

The portrait of a confident, still intact Taliban insurgency was compiled for
Nato commanders from material gathered during 27,000 interrogation sessions
with more than 4,000 insurgent prisoners held during 2011, as Barack Obama’s
surge of troops was at its height. It was drawn up by American military
officers at Bagram airfield.

The report, called “State of the Taliban”, found there had been
growing interest over the past 12 months from members of Mr Karzai’s
government in cooperating with, or even joining their opponents.

It also found increasing reports of “outright coordination, equipment
transfers, intelligence sharing or occasionally even the incorporation of
Afghan security forces in Taliban operations”.

Afghan police and soldiers had in some places formed informal ceasefires or
non-aggression pacts with their local insurgent enemies as they prepared for
a future after Nato forces. These deals often included pledges from the
security forces that they would support the Taliban in the long term,
according to the report.

“The Taliban are absolutely confident in their ability to subdue Afghan
security forces,” it said.

Training the Afghan police and army to take charge of security in Afghanistan
is the foundation of Nato’s strategy to withdraw combat troops by the end of
2014.

However the report said detainees had claimed the Afghan security forces were
selling or giving away the weapons which the West has donated.

A bazaar in Miranshah, capital of North Waziristan in Pakistan’s tribal
region, was “increasingly inundated with rifles, pistols and heavy
weapons which have been sold by Afghan security forces.”

“The vehicles and weapons were once only acquired on the battlefield.
They are now regularly sold or donated by the Afghan security forces,”
the report concluded.

Pictures of Taliban fighters driving in Afghan army vehicles or posing with
their weapons had become common trophies in the conflict.

Although Taliban prisoners were weary of war, the report found that morale
remained high in the Taliban movement despite repeated claims by Nato
commanders that they have broken its momentum.

“As opposed to years past, detainees have become more confident not only
in their potential to win, but the virtue of their cause,” it said.

Fighters believed there was little hope of a negotiated settlement. They
believed Mr Karzai and his northern Afghan allies were deliberately
prolonging the conflict to collect foreign aid and subdue the Pashtun tribes
of the south.

Following the leak of the study, Nato headquarters in Kabul insisted it was
not an analysis of the state of the military campaign. It said that while it “may
provide some level of representative sampling of Taliban opinions and ideals”,
it should “not be used as any interpretation of campaign progress”.

Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan’s foreign minister, dismissed the claims as “old
wine in an even older bottle” during a visit to Kabul.

“I can disregard this as potentially a strategic leak,” she said.

Brig Gen Carsten Jacobsen, spokesman for the coalition, said: “Obviously
they are telling us what their idea is about the goings on of their
campaign. It is what they either do believe or what they want us to believe.”

“The insurgency is clearly on the back foot. We have been pressurizing
them over the summer, we have taken vast amounts of land out of their hands
and we have detained a high number” of militants.”

Britain’s Kabul Ambassador William Patey yesterday wrote on his Twitter feed
that “if elements of the Taliban think that in 2015 they can take
control of Afghanistan they will be in for a shock”. He did not say if
he was referring to the document.

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