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More than a dozen former British soldiers who fought in Afghanistan have died by suicide in a short period of time, it has been reported.

The Times reportedthat some 14 former and serving army personnel are thought to have killed themselves in the past two months.

MP Johnny Mercer told the newspaper in an interview he was concerned over the cluster of deaths involving a specific unit that served at a specific time in Afghanistan the bloodiest time.

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The Minister for Defence People and Veterans was referring to veterans involved in Operation Herrick, which is the codename for all British operations conducted between 2002 and 2014 in Afghanistan.

By the end of 2014, 453 soldiers died during Operation Herrick. According to the Ministry of Defence(MoD), there were 29 coroner-confirmed suicides and open verdict deaths of army personnel who were previously deployed to Operation Herrick as of February 2018.

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More than a dozen former British soldiers who fought in Afghanistan kill themselves within two months - The Independent

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The US and the Taliban have signed an agreement aimed at paving the way towards peace in Afghanistan after more than 18 years of conflict.

Under the deal, the US and its Nato allies will withdraw all their troops from the country in 14 months if the hardline Islamic movement upholds its commitments to stop attacks.

But why is the US fighting a war in Afghanistan and why has it lasted so long?

On 11 September 2001, attacks in America killed nearly 3,000 people. Osama Bin Laden, the head of Islamist terror group al-Qaeda, was quickly identified as the man responsible.

The Taliban, radical Islamists who ran Afghanistan and protected Bin Laden, refused to hand him over. So, a month after 9/11, the US launched air strikes against Afghanistan.

As other countries joined the war, the Taliban were quickly removed from power. But they didn't just disappear - their influence grew back and they dug in.

Since then, the US and its allies have struggled to stop Afghanistan's government collapsing, and to end deadly attacks by the Taliban.

"We did not ask for this mission, but we will fulfil it," US President George W Bush said when he announced the first air strikes against Afghanistan on 7 October, 2001. The raids were in response to the 9/11 attacks, which killed 2,977 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

The mission, he said, was "to disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations and to attack the military capability of the Taliban regime".

The first targets were military sites belonging to the hardline Taliban group who ruled the country. Training camps for al-Qaeda, the terror group run by 9/11 plotter Osama Bin Laden, were also hit.

But 18 years on, it's hard to argue the US mission has been fulfilled - the Taliban may play a part in ruling Afghanistan again if peace talks do eventually succeed.

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The Taliban first took control of the capital Kabul in 1996, and ruled most of the country within two years. They followed a radical form of Islam and enforced punishments like public executions.

Within two months of the US and its international and Afghan allies launching their attacks, the Taliban regime collapsed and its fighters melted away into Pakistan.

A new US-backed government took over in 2004, but the Taliban still had a lot of support in areas around the Pakistani border, and made hundreds of millions of dollars a year from the drug trade, mining and taxes.

As the Taliban carried out more and more suicide attacks, international forces working with Afghan troops struggled to counter the threat the re-energised group posed.

In 2014, at the end of what was the bloodiest year in Afghanistan since 2001, Nato's international forces - wary of staying in Afghanistan indefinitely - ended their combat mission, leaving it to the Afghan army to fight the Taliban.

But that gave the Taliban momentum, as they seized territory and detonated bombs against government and civilian targets. In 2018, the BBC found the Taliban was openly active across 70% of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan had been in a state of almost constant war for 20 years even before the US invaded.

In 1979, a year after a coup, the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan to support its communist government. It fought a resistance movement - known as the mujahideen - that was supported by the US, Pakistan, China and Saudi Arabia, among other countries.

In 1989, Soviet troops withdrew but the civil war continued. In the chaos that followed, the Taliban (which means "students" in the Pashto language) sprang up.

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They first rose to prominence in the border area of northern Pakistan and south-west Afghanistan in 1994. They promised to fight corruption and improve security and, at that time, many Afghans were tired of the excesses and infighting of the mujahideen during the civil war.

It's thought the Taliban first appeared in religious schools, mostly funded by Saudi Arabia, which preached a hardline form of Islam.

They enforced their own austere version of Sharia, or Islamic law, and introduced brutal punishments. Men were made to grow beards and women had to wear the all-covering burka.

The Taliban banned television, music and cinema and disapproved of girls' education.

And because the Taliban gave shelter to militants from the al-Qaeda group, it made them an immediate target for an attack by US, Afghan and international forces in the wake of 9/11.

There are many reasons for this. But they include a combination of fierce Taliban resistance, the limitations of Afghan forces and governance, and other countries' reluctance to keep their troops for longer in Afghanistan.

At times over the past 18 years, the Taliban have been on the back foot. In late 2009, US President Barack Obama announced a troop "surge" that saw the number of American soldiers in Afghanistan top 100,000.

The surge helped drive the Taliban out of parts of southern Afghanistan, but it was never destined to last for years.

As a result, the Taliban were able to regroup. When international forces withdrew from fighting, Afghan forces left to lead the charge were easily overwhelmed. To make matters worse, Afghanistan's government, that is full of tribal division, is often hamstrung.

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The BBC World Service's Dawood Azami says there are five main reasons the war is still going on now. They include:

There's also the role played by Afghanistan's neighbour, Pakistan.

There's no question the Taliban have their roots in Pakistan, and that they were able to regroup there during the US invasion. But Pakistan has denied helping or protecting them - even as the US demanded it do more to fight militants.

The group could be making as much as $1.5bn (1.2bn) a year, a huge increase even within the past decade. Some of this is through drugs - Afghanistan is the world's largest opium producer, and most opium poppies - used for heroin - are grown in Taliban-held areas.

But the Taliban also make money by taxing people who travel through their territory, and through businesses like telecommunications, electricity and minerals.

Foreign countries, including Pakistan and Iran, have denied funding them, but private citizens from the region are thought to have done so.

Extremely.

It's difficult to say how many Afghan troops have died - the numbers are no longer published. But in January 2019, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said 45,000 members of the security forces had been killed since 2014.

Nearly 3,500 members of the international coalition forces have died since the 2001 invasion, more than 2,300 of them American.

The figures for Afghan civilians are more difficult to quantify. A UN report in February 2019 said more than 32,000 civilians had died. The Watson Institute at Brown University says 42,000 opposition fighters have died.

The same institute says conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan have cost the US $5.9 trillion since 2001.

The US is still conducting air strikes against the Taliban, instigated by the third president to oversee the war, Donald Trump. But he is keen to reduce troop numbers before he faces another election in November 2020.

The Taliban now control much more territory than they did when international troops left Afghanistan in 2014.

Many in Washington and elsewhere fear that a full US troop pull-out would leave a vacuum that could be filled by militant groups seeking to plot attacks in the West.

The Afghan people, meanwhile, continue to bear the brunt of the long and bloody conflict.

Excerpt from:
Why is there a war in Afghanistan? The short, medium and long story - BBC News

Still, he spoke more optimistically about the opportunity for some type of settlement.

McKenzie, who first served in Afghanistan as a colonel in 2004 and returned as a one-star general in 2009, said there was no path to peace during those years.

Now, he said, a political agreement is possible if the Taliban is willing to bring reasonable proposals to the table.

Im not going to tell you that were turning the corner, but Im not willing to say that its going to be status quo forever either, he said. This is new, its different and it offers a path if the parties would be responsive and wise enough to grasp it.

Asked about the Trump administration's stated desire to cut America's troop presence in Afghanistan to about 8,600, McKenzie would only say that, so far, he hasn't received an order to bring troops home.

He declined to say if withdrawal might be contingent on Taliban peace talk concessions.

He added, however, that he believes the Afghan security forces are improving. A key U.S. goal is to increase the capabilities of the Afghan forces so that they are able to secure their own country if coalition troops leave. But that effort has stumbled in fits and starts over the past decade, hampered by government corruption, lack of proper systems and resources and troop attrition fueled by the persistent violence.

Standing in what officials are calling the Combined Situational Awareness Room, where coalition and Afghan forces coordinate combat missions, McKenzie said previous efforts for better communication failed.

I was here in 2009 when we first tried to do the experiment, it didn't work, he told commanders and staff. Behind them, a wall of large screens showed planned military operations, real-time video surveillance of small groups and traffic at various locations, and a scrolling social media feed. One screen provide information to help identify friendly forces

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Top Commander Sees Increased Iran Threat in Afghanistan - The New York Times

US dropped bombs in Afghanistan at record level in 2019

KABUL, Afghanistan The United States dropped more bombs and other munitions in Afghanistan last year than any other year since documentation began in 2006, Air Force data shows.

American aircraft released 7,423 munitions in the country in 2019, according to figures published Monday by U.S. Air Forces Central Command. Coalition aircraft flew nearly 8,800 sorties during the period, over a quarter of which carried out strikes.

The tally surpasses the previous record set last year when 7,362 munitions were released and comes amid ongoing discussion between American and Taliban officials aimed at ending Americas longest war.

Talks between the two sides continued for most of 2019 as American bombs were dropped.

The U.S. has been very explicitly using stepped-up attacks on the Taliban as a form of leverage-seeking, Laurel Miller, former U.S. acting Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in a phone interview, adding that the Taliban also sees violence as its main form of leverage.

The U.S.-Taliban talks resumed last month in Qatar after a three-month pause.

The AFCENT figures include bomb and missile strikes, 105 mm shells fired by AC-130 gunships and strafing fire from 20 mm cannons and up.

Airstrikes, predominantly conducted by U.S. forces, caused 579 of the 1,149 civilian war fatalities attributed to pro-government forces in Afghanistan during the first nine months of 2019, according to the most recent United Nations data. Insurgent groups were responsible for 1,207 civilian deaths in that time, the U.N. data showed. Another 207 civilian deaths were unattributed to either side.

Last week, Afghanistans Independent Human Rights Commission blamed a U.S. drone strike conducted earlier this month in western Herat province for killing 15 civilians, including three children.

The commission has repeatedly called on domestic and foreign forces to be more careful in conducting military operations so that civilians are not harmed, the commission said.

A spokesman for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan confirmed the U.S. military carried out the strike in support of government forces. Afghan authorities said an investigation was ongoing.

While U.S.-trained Afghan forces are capable of conducting ground operations, they still need air support to fight insurgents and terrorist groups, like the local Islamic State affiliate, said Rohullah Ahmadzai, Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman.

The cooperation of foreign forces is vital for us, Ahmadzai said.

The defense ministry was unable to say how many munitions Afghan forces released in 2019.

Zubair Babakarkhail contributed to this report

wellman.philllip@stripes.comTwitter: @pwwellman

An Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon from the 79th Fighter Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., releases flares over Afghanistan, Nov. 12, 2019. The U.S. dropped more bombs and other munitions in Afghanistan last year than any other year since documentation began in 2006, Air Force data shows.MATTHEW LOTZ/U.S. AIR FORCE

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US dropped bombs in Afghanistan at record level in 2019 - Stars and Stripes

The U.S. military is reducing the number of UH-60 Black Hawks it plans to provide Afghan forces from 159 to just 53 a two-thirds cut in the quantity of rotary wing assets American forces had intended to provide, according to a Defense Department report.

In its December 2019 report titled Enhancing Security and Stability of Afghanistan the DoD provided few details surrounding the cut to the UH-60 program, which provides Afghan forces with troop and cargo transport and casualty evacuation.

The U.S. military also cut the number of armed fixed-wing AC-208 attack and reconnaissance aircraft it originally planned to deliver from 32 to 10. AC-208 Eliminator gunships which made its debut in Kabul in February 2019 provides ground and precision attack armed with the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, or APKWS rockets.

These reductions were made on the basis of a review of future operational requirements, the report reads.

The department continually works with its Afghan partners to re-assess operational requirements over time and adjusts as appropriate, Lt. Col. Thomas Campbell, a Pentagon spokesman, told Military Times in an emailed statement.

Similarly, the reduction in advisors reflects the assessment of U.S. commanders that the Afghan Air Force is increasingly capable of conducting operations independently, Campbell said.

The DoD provided no other details regarding the cuts to the UH-60 and AC-208 program.

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The Black Hawk program was once touted by the former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson, as a game changer that would break the stalemate between Afghan and Taliban forces.

Offensive capability is what will break the stalemate in Afghanistan, Nicholson told lawmakers in 2017. The key offensive capabilities for the Afghan security forces are their special forces and their air force.

Success of the Afghan Air Force will be a key metric for Pentagon planners seeking to draw down U.S. troops in the country. The U.S. is still bearing most of the burden of air support for Afghan troops.

According to U.S. Air Forces Central Command, U.S. aircraft dropped 7,423 munitions in 2019 thats the highest number of bombs released in nearly a decade.

But critics have argued that Afghan forces are barely capable of absorbing and maintaining their existing fleet of aging Russian Mi-17 transport aircraft, among other air assets.

The Afghan military currently has 206 aircraft in its fleet with 163 of those airframes available in country, according to the DoD. Those aircraft include 45 UH-60s, 10 AC-208s, 25 A-29 Super Tucanos, 45 Mi-17s and 49 MD-530 light-attack helicopters, among other aircraft, according to the report.

Given that it takes substantial U.S. support to maintain the airframes that the Afghan Air Force has already, it doesnt seem feasible that they would be able to support that many Black Hawks without a significant contribution from NATO, Matthew Archibald, an independent researcher and consultant on South Asian issues, told Military Times in 2017 following news the U.S. planned to provide 159 Black Hawks to Afghan forces.

Moreover, analysts have criticized American plans to swap out the Mi-17 with American-made Black Hawk helicopters, arguing that the Mi-17 provides more lift and transport capability over the UH-60. The Pentagon contends new engine upgrades would allow the Black Hawk to nearly match lift and transport capabilities of the Mi-17.

Its unknown if the reduction in the number of UH-60s will hamper Afghan operations or limit lift capability for Afghan forces. The Black Hawk program was intended to replace Afghanistans aging Mi-17 fleet.

The DoD report still notes the replacement of Afghanistans Russian Mi-17s as a goal of the UH-60 program. UH-60s have been fully fielded to the AAF [Afghan Air Force] and, as pilot proficiency increases, they will increasingly and fully displace the Mi-17 fleet, the DoD report reads.

Despite the reduction in future aircraft for Afghan forces the Afghan Air Force made some positive strides in 2019.

According to the DoD report, A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft are conducting now-routine delivery of laser-guided bombs and firing APKWS rockets from AC-208s.

The report also noted that AC-208s can pair with A-29s using a laser designator aboard the AC-208 known as the MX-15 to help buddy lasetargets or aid Super Tucanos in guiding laser guided bombs.

There are about 13,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Peace negotiations between the Taliban and the U.S. are ongoing to end the 18-year long war.

The Pentagon is considering plans to reduce the U.S. footprint in Afghanistan to 8,600 troops.

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US cuts number of Black Hawks to Afghanistan by two-thirds - Military Times