Event Summary:
US President Barack Obama on 15th October 2015 announced that his administration will not withdraw the troops in Afghanistan by the end of his tenure as promised but retain at least 5500 ground troops to protect the gains made in the 14 years of war.
Afghani National Security Adviser, Mohammad Hanif Atmar on 24th October has warned of the dangers posed by the Middle East major terrorist groups ISIS and Al Qaeda to his country and encouraged more military invention from both NATO and the US.
Analysis:
According to intelligence reports in the Middle East, Al Qaeda is re-establishing itself in Afghanistan heightening the threat already posed by the rapid spread of the Islamic State Caliphate in the region.
The terror network is finding safe haven in Afghanistan as they exploit the fragile security situation of the country with the recent resurgence of the Taliban.
According to Atmar, Al Qaeda, ISIS, Taliban and the brutal Haqqani Network have not degraded as earlier assumed but rather they have regenerated and morphed into more adaptable groups, forming alliances, pooling resources from external sources and finding haven in Afghanistan.
The vulnerable state of the highly US-dependent Afghani troops has exposed them to all forms of attacks from scattered shootings and bombings to highly coordinated assaults limiting the troops to defensive assaults rather than conduct offensive assaults.
Such like defensive assaults by the government troops have left a blind spot through which the terrorist exploit to gain entry into Afghanistan from other countries. From where they use it as ‘attack launch-pad’ for their home countries creating geopolitical tensions among neighbors.
Conclusion:
The resurgence of the Taliban creates a very volatile political situation for the Afghani government as it creates a leeway through which groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS gain both political and combatant footing away from their hotbed in Iraq and Syria.
Atmar advised of changing tactic to fight the Taliban to avoid creating an administrative arm of the terrorist network through the Taliban.
The call for further involvement from the US and NATO is as a plan to deal with the Taliban by all means necessary either by counterterrorism measures or through peace and reconciliation to redirect the purportedly dangerous militant traffic into Afghanistan.
