Showing posts with label border. Show all posts
Showing posts with label border. Show all posts

Monday, January 12, 2015

TAAC-E Visit to Pak Border - Torkham Gate

A high level VIP visit to the Torkham Gate border was conducted by Afghan and Coalition members. The Afghan National Army Chief of Staff Sher Mohammad Karimi, RS Commander General John Campbell, and members of the TAAC East visited the Khyber Border Coordination Center (KBCC) near the Torkham Gate area of the Afghan-Pak border in eastern Nangarhar in early January 2015. In addition, key leaders from the Afghan National Army, Afghan Uniform Police, and the Afghan Border Police were in attendance. The KBCC is run by the Afghan Border Police and is located on the former U.S. Forward Operating Base Torkham. The base was transferred to the Afghans in July 2014. The visit by coalition personnel was the first since last summer - six months ago. There are a host of issues that need to be resolved concerning the border. Some issues have to do with the immense corruption that takes place among the Afghan Border Police and the Afghan customs officials. Other issues concern the relations with Pakistan, cross-border incidents of insurgent groups, insurgents firing adjacent to Pakistan border patrol locations, and Pakistani artillery firing across the border into Afghanistan. Read more in "TAAC-E troops advise Afghans on Pakistan military border coordination", RS News, January 9, 2015.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Turkmenistan is Worried About the Taliban

The Turkmenistan government is deeply concerned about a post-2014 Afghanistan. With ISAF leaving at the end of 2014 there will be very little foreign combat troops left in the country. The Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) will be doing almost all of the fighting with very little close air support and aerial ISR assets. Turkmenistan is taking steps to seal its border. There are almost one million ethnic Turkmens in Afghanistan - and these people have enjoyed great freedom of movement across the border. However, that is all changing - especially in Faryab and Jowzjan provinces. In the past few years the situation in northern Afghanistan has deteriorated. Regional Command North (now called TAAC North) collapsed its military units from the eastern and western sectors of northern Afghanistan into the center (at Camp Marmal near Mazar-e-Sharif). As a result the Taliban are enjoying greater freedom of movement and the ANSF are taking some heavy losses. Read more in "Turkmenistan Prepares for Post-2014 Afghanistan", The Diplomat, October 16, 2014.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Coalition Forces Attack Across Afghan-Pak Border

Coalition forces have reportedly attacked militant positions located just across the Pakistan border.  Pakistan is claiming that three of its border soldiers were killed in the attack. Read more in "NATO helicopter strike on Pakistan shows new strategy of hot pursuit", The Christian Science Monitor, September 30, 2010.