05 September 2016

News Story: (Afghan)Troops Failing On Battlefields Due To 'Poor Training'

by Ghulabuddin Ghobar

The director general of the Afghan National Army (ANA) Training Academy said security force members are being killed on the battlefields and losing regions to insurgents due to the lack of decent training.

Attending the graduation ceremony in Kabul on Sunday of almost 1,300 recruits, who were trained in various fields, some officials from the Ministry of Defense (MoD) put the high death toll among soldiers and the failure to eliminate insurgents down to the issue of training.

Farooq Ahmadi, general director of the ANA training academy said: "All the casualties, problems, shortages and loss of equipment to the insurgents are rooted in weak training within the ANA."

Recent reports indicated that currently over 10 districts are under Taliban control. However, MoD officials state that only five districts are in fact under insurgent control. They said these districts are not strategically important to government.

Brigadier General, Abdul Hamid Hamid, Executive Officer of the ANA, said the Taliban is on the verge of being eliminated and that districts under their control do not have political importance to the ANA.

Read the full story at TOLOnews