Afghan Air force under Taliban rule

[shin_getter]

Drone Strike, Taliban Style:

The Drone Unit that Helped the Taliban Win the War

Newlines Magazine interviews the engineers-turned-assassins working the drone unit that enabled the Taliban to win the war in Afghanistan.

newlinesmag.com

the Taliban leadership knew that continuing to launch suicide attacks against Afghan forces risked angering the population. A more precise method of killing was needed, particularly in the north of the country where the insurgents had less support. To the man who would become the unit’s emir, drones seemed like the perfect answer. After talking through the idea with senior intelligence operatives, he started to assemble his team.

...excelled as a student in Kabul University’s faculty of engineering during the U.S. occupation... But he is also rarely seen without his laptop and two smartphones — a Huawei and a Samsung Galaxy S20. The squad leader’s team of 11 men is made in his image. Like him, several of them are from Wardak, southwest of Kabul. They are well educated, and a number of them worked for Western NGOs before joining the drone team... Its job was to harass and assassinate Afghan government officials in the north. In doing so, it was to report solely to senior members of the Taliban’s intelligence apparatus. No one else in the insurgency was to be given detailed information about the unit’s operations, including shadow governors and high-level military commanders.

...Then the company identified the right drone, it cost the Taliban approximately $60,000. They purchased it in China and smuggled the parts into Afghanistan via Pakistan....Next, the unit’s engineers set to work modifying the drone. The chemical tanks and hoses for carrying and spraying fertilizer and pesticides were removed and replaced with a makeshift plastic missile rack capable of holding four mortar rounds that could be fired via a computer-activated spring mechanism.

Taliban’s first major operation with the new drone came in the northern city of Kunduz on Nov. 1, 2020. At least four bodyguards of the provincial governor were killed in the strike... another potential operation in Kunduz, this time against U.S. troops, was called off after U.S. service members spotted the drone and relayed a complaint to the Taliban’s political office in Qatar, noting that it would violate the terms of the nationwide withdrawal agreement the Trump administration struck with the Taliban in February 2020. Taliban leaders ordered a halt to the operation

...The target was a regional-level official in the north of the country named Piram Qul....Around 11 a.m., the unit leader uttered a prayer and keyed the launch code into his computer. Seconds later the mission was over. Piram Qul was dead before he even realized he was under attack.

 

[TomcatViP]

The recent drone strike in Afghanistan has some resounding similarities with the described material, target profile and methodologies.

 

[Grey Havoc]

Taliban say US drone flights violate Trump-era deal

The Taliban on Tuesday asked the U.S. to cease drone patrols in Afghan airspace, arguing they violate an agreement made last year between the group and the Trump administration, The Washington Post…

thehill.com

 

[muttly]

They broke every element of that agreement and now they want to
enforce only the parts they like.

 

[Grey Havoc]

Meant to post this a few days ago:

State Dept: Dozens of Afghan pilots close to leaving Tajikistan soon

Roughly 150 Afghan Air Force pilots and personnel could be transferred out of Tajikistan soon after waiting several months to be relocated following their exit from Afghanistan, a State Department …

thehill.com

 

[Grey Havoc]

Kirby also confirmed that a group of Afghan pilots early on Wednesday morning were flown out of Tajikistan and are now in the United Arab Emirates.

The evacuees, who fled to nearby Tajikistan after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in August, are being processed for eventual admission to the United States.

Pentagon: ‘Dozens’ of family members of US troops still in Afghanistan

The Pentagon confirmed that “dozens” of family members of American troops remain in Afghanistan nearly three months after the U.S. ended its military mission in the country.“We believe it…

thehill.com

 

[shin_getter]

Taliban Army Reinstates Armour Operations In Afghanistan

www.oryxspioenkop.com

Interesting development that probably don't need a entire thread.....

 

[Foo Fighter]

A pointless revelation that say's nothing of value.

 

[TomcatViP]

A summary of what can be also found here:

Pilots detail chaotic collapse of the Afghan Air Force

Hours before Kabul fell to the Taliban on Aug. 15, the Afghan Air Force was melting down. Instead of unleashing air attacks against advancing insurgents, some airmen were fighting each other.

www.reuters.com

 

[muttly]

We spend billions, they want us out. Don't worry they say we can defend ourselves
with out you. We are ready for you to get the heck out of our country. As soon as we do,
they pull an Iraq and run. Why did the equipment fall in disarray so quickly. Only they know
the full answer. This is what we get for helping someone that does not want our help.

 

[TomcatViP]

The question is: was Afghanistan really a country? Probably something to ask to the Brits...

 

[shin_getter]

Taliban Air Force Commences (Jet) Operations

www.oryxspioenkop.com

L-39 isn't particularly impressive though

 

[Foo Fighter]

I personally believe many have attempted to make a cohesive country over generations but it has remained a feudal collection of little kingdoms. With the pacification of the hill tribes, this Taliban iteration seems to be doing the same again. Whether they actually succeed remains to be seen but they, in a calculated series of strikes, removed the biggest of figureheads for resistance so far.

 

[riggerrob]

The question is: was Afghanistan really a country? Probably something to ask to the Brits...

Some cynics (e.g. me) would say that Afghanistan was never a "country" by the European definition.
Afghanistan - and the next dozen Third World nations: Somalia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, etc. - have never been unified nations. European colonizers divided and conquered by lumping together multiple different tribes, languages, religions, eco-systems, economies, etc. to make them easier to rule from afar. They appointed compliant minority tribes to rule everyone else.
While the ruling party/tribe/religion may have presented a legitimate-looking ruler and legitimate-looking capital city, that party never represented the best interests of all the different tribes.

In short, Afghanistan cannot be called a "failed nation" or "failed democracy" because it never was a functioning democracy.

 

[Aeroflight]

The question is: was Afghanistan really a country? Probably something to ask to the Brits...

Some cynics (e.g. me) would say that Afghanistan was never a "country" by the European definition.
Afghanistan - and the next dozen Third World nations: Somalia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, etc. - have never been unified nations. European colonizers divided and conquered by lumping together multiple different tribes, languages, religions, eco-systems, economies, etc. to make them easier to rule from afar. They appointed compliant minority tribes to rule everyone else.
While the ruling party/tribe/religion may have presented a legitimate-looking ruler and legitimate-looking capital city, that party never represented the best interests of all the different tribes.

In short, Afghanistan cannot be called a "failed nation" or "failed democracy" because it never was a functioning democracy.

Ethiopia is the only African country never to be colonised.

 

[Fluff]

The question is: was Afghanistan really a country? Probably something to ask to the Brits...

Some cynics (e.g. me) would say that Afghanistan was never a "country" by the European definition.
Afghanistan - and the next dozen Third World nations: Somalia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, etc. - have never been unified nations. European colonizers divided and conquered by lumping together multiple different tribes, languages, religions, eco-systems, economies, etc. to make them easier to rule from afar. They appointed compliant minority tribes to rule everyone else.
While the ruling party/tribe/religion may have presented a legitimate-looking ruler and legitimate-looking capital city, that party never represented the best interests of all the different tribes.

In short, Afghanistan cannot be called a "failed nation" or "failed democracy" because it never was a functioning democracy.

Ethiopia is the only African country never to be colonised.

I thought Italy gave it a good go?

 

[dan_inbox]

Ethiopia is the only African country never to be colonised.

Especially if you don't count the post-DERG Muslim invasion as a colonization.
AFAIK, the original (Christian) inhabitants might disagree.

 

[Foo Fighter]

The UK had a certain amount of time controlling the country.

 

[GTX]

The question is: was Afghanistan really a country? Probably something to ask to the Brits...

One could probably pose that question for dozens of countries, many with far less stability over the years than Afghanistan. Arguably, Afghanistan has been a country since the 1880s when Abdur Rahman Khan was Emir of Afghanistan and the British established the Durand Line. Since then it has had mostly various forms of Monarchy control (of varying quality). Sadly, the last 40 odd yrs when it found itself at the centre of US-USSR 'games' which then led to the abomination of the Taliban and the like (including more external influences) hasn't been kind.It's hard to believe that this photo was taken in Afghanistan in the 1970s when one considers the current situation:

 

[Grey Havoc]

From a couple of weeks back. Via the SNAFU blog:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Helicopters/comments/xbbq1g

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/Helicopters/comments/xbbq1g/a_taliban_uh60a_black_hawk_crashed_in_kabul/

EDIT: Via the comments thread;

Black Hawk helicopter crashes during Taliban training exercise, killing three

A Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a Taliban training exercise in Afghanistan's capital Kabul, killing three, the group's defence ministry said on Saturday.

www.reuters.com

EDIT2: Again via the comments;

level 1
KingBobIV

+4·14 days ago

MIL MH-60S TH-57
Oh damn, someone on r/aviation posted a better video.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1568837940670767104

View: https://twitter.com/bsarwary/status/1568837940670767104

So, it definitely was a t/r malfunction. Maybe a tail hydraulic servo failure or something.

 

[Grey Havoc]

From back in August:

The pilot who defected to the Taliban in his Black Hawk

As the Taliban retook Afghanistan, one elite pilot joined the militants he'd been trained to fight.

www.bbc.com

 

[Grey Havoc]

Interestingly the Russians seem to have cooled on their earlier ah, enthusiasm for the new regime

The wheel turns:

Russia's plan to form ties with Taliban edges U.S. out of region

Both sides seek strategy against ISIS-K and the West

asia.nikkei.com

 

[Grey Havoc]

1:27PM

Russia invites Taliban to major economic forum​

Russia has invited Afghanistan’s Taliban to its biggest annual economic forum as Moscow moves to remove a ban on the Islamist movement, a senior Russian diplomat was quoted as saying on Monday.

Since the Taliban seized power in August 2021 as US-led forces withdrew after 20 years of war, Russia has been slowly building ties with the Taliban, though the movement is still officially outlawed in Russia.

Russia’s foreign and justice ministries have reported to president Vladimir Putin on the issue of removing the ban, Zamir Kabulov, director of the Second Asia Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry, told state news agency TASS.

Zamir Kabulov, director of the Second Asia Department at the Russian foreign ministry was quoted as saying that an invitation to attend the June 5-8 St Petersburg international economic forum had been extended to the Taliban.

Afghan leaders, he said, were traditionally interested in the purchase of oil products.

The St Petersburg forum, which once hosted Western CEOs and investment bankers from London and New York, has changed significantly amid the Ukraine war which has triggered the biggest crisis in Russia’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Western investors seeking a slice of Russia’s vast resource wealth have now been replaced by businesses from China, India, Africa and the Middle East.

Russia-Ukraine war latest: Putin's forces 'capture two villages in eastern Ukraine'

Russia says its forces have captured two more villages in eastern Ukraine – one in the Donetsk region, and another in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[F.L.]

Some pics of the Taliban AF :

 

[F.L.]

Some pics of Taliban Mi-24/35, at least four are in service :

 

[F.L.]

At least four MD-500 on this photo :

 

[TomcatViP]

Did some of the escaped a/c were flown back to Afghanistan? I am surprised that they can fly 4 of the little birds at the same time.

 

[Scott Kenny]

Never mind that man behind the curtain.

The one you're actually referring to speaks Pashtu and Arabic, not Russian. (Pakistani Intelligence)