[Tolo News] Following an ambush last week in which the Afghan National Army (ANA) suffered heavy losses, the Alaf Sapeed area has become a Taliban stronghold.TOLOnews news hound Rateb Noori traveled to Sar-e Pul province to find out more about the incident that occurred last Monday.
In Sar-e Pul city, the capital of the province, everything seemed normal, but outside of the city, the situation was very different.
"Alaf Sapeed is very dangerous, when we were coming, we saw a total of 14 national army vehicles set on fire," said Abdul Hameed, a resident of Kohistan
...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns....
at district.
Since last Monday, the Alaf Sapeed valley has become a Taliban hotbed, and local residents report that the Afghan cops cannot travel through it without getting attacked. When asked to take the TOLOnews team to the area, a local guide refused because he said it was too dangerous.
Adeena is a driver who drives the route through the valley every day. He said that there are not enough security check posts from the center of the province out to the outlying Kohistanat district.
"Parts of the Sar-e Pul province is hilly, that is why having air support is very important," Deputy Provincial Governor Abdul Ghafoor Dastyar said. "We had asked for air support from the foreign troops in the incident, but our request was not answered positively; if we had air support last week, we would have not have had such heavy losses."
Cause, meet effect. Air support requested -> Karzai bitching and moaning about civilian casualties -> tighter controls on air support. Karzai leaving makes no difference now; the command and control pipes are already blocked with political crap.