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Last updated10:15, March 27 2017

ALEX VAN WEL/FAIRFAX NZ

Kiwi troops patrolling the Ghandak highway in Bamiyan, Afghanistan.

A shelved Defence Force report on New Zealand's deployment in Afghanistan slammed the lack of a cohesive plan for our time in the country, as well as issues with faulty equipment.

However, a military commander says the report was neverformalised as it was"insufficiently accurate".

The draft report, provided to NZME under the Official Information Act, was produced after the end of New Zealand's 10-year involvement with the Provincial Reconstruction Team in the Bamiyan province.

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A New Zealand soldier pictured in Afghanistan. A damning report into New Zealand's deployment in the country has finally been released.

The report from the military's J8 branch, which focuses on "continuous improvement/lessons learned",criticised a "lack of a cohesive campaign plan" for New Zealand operations in Afghanistan, with each six-month rotation treated like an individual operation.

READ MORE: * Flags lowered in Bamiyan * Defence Force chief slams inaccuracies in SAS allegations

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Commander Joint Forces NZ Major General Tim Gall said the report was too inaccurate to be accepted and circulated.

"It was felt that no consolidated New Zealand campaign plan existed. As such, there was a lack of clarity over the end state and the milestones expected to be achieved."

Commanders on the ground felt "the principle of mission command was not exercised", with decisions being taken by government minister and military headquarters that should have been devolved.

Poor synchronisation between military headquarters and troops on the ground led to "frustration and wasted effort and resources", with duplicated sourcing of equipment like pallets and tie-down straps.

"A strong 'she'll be right' culture" was evident, with inconsistent application of processes.

"Personnel are simply not following established procedures or completing paperwork in accordance with published standard operating procedures."

There was a general lack of experience of working within a large coalition, while some troops were sent on deployment without meeting minimum requirements for readiness.

The report also outlined problems with military equipment. There was a shortage of specialist weapons, while issued combat boots broke down quickly in the Afghanistan environment and caused injuries, leading many soldiers to buy their own footwear.

REPORT INACCURATE - NZDF

The report was based on interviews with Kiwi troops in Afghanistan, with additional material from documents and direct observations.

"The interviewees were urged to be as open and frank as possible in their responses."

In a letter accompanying the report's release, Commander Joint Forces NZ Major General Tim Gall said it was too inaccurate to be accepted and circulated.

"The observations reported in the J8 group's conclusions diverged quite markedly from those of other, more experienced, on-the-ground observers."

Gall said the report contained self-contradictions, along with "unremarkable or mere 'business as usual' irritations" which were recorded as more serious issues.

Claims about the lack of a cohesive campaign plan ignored information at the public domain at the time about the Defence Force's missions in Afghanistan.

"The rest of the synopsis is devoted to dozens of 'issues', most of which could be characterised as being minor at best," he said.

NZME asked for a copy of the report in January 2014, but the Defence Force initially refused to release the information, saying it could compromise the country's safety and stop military officers from offering frank views.

It then decided to release the report, after Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier met Defence Force chief Lieutenant General Tim Keating.

-Stuff

Read more:
Damning Afghanistan war report criticises lack of planning for NZ deployment - Waikato Times

A Long Island man who served in the Marines and lost both legs below the knees after stepping on a bomb in Afghanistan was sworn in Friday as possibly the first fully active duty double amputee police officer in the country.

Matias Ferreira, 28, graduated from the Suffolk County Police Academy in Brentwood, L.I. His first assignment as a precinct patrol officer begins next week. He told Fox 5 New York he isnt worried if he breaks a leg on the job.

More: Vietnam vet awarded Bronze Star for bravery in battle

If I break my leg I go the trunk of my car and put on a new one and Im back on duty, he told the station.

The 2011 blast in Afghanistan shattered his legs, forcing doctors to amputate. The machine-gunner spent nearly a year recovering in a hospital outside Washington.

Ferreira stands on titanium prosthetics, Newsday reported. He dreamed of being a cop as a kid.

Ferreira completed 29-weeks of training at the academy, passing the same rigorous challenges as other recruits.

More: Veteran who helps homeless vets aims to make it a nationwide movement

He was born in Uruguay and moved to the U.S. when he was 6, Fox 5 reported.

Tiffiany Ferreira said she was proud of her husband.

To watch my husband achieve his dream that I think most people would thing wasnt even possible is really special, she told the station.

DENVER Colorado is considering an unusual strategy to protect...

Read the original post:
Marine who lost both legs in Afghanistan sworn in as cop - New York Post

Three U.S. Army soldiers were shot and wounded Sunday when an Afghan Army soldier opened fire on them inside a base in southern Afghanistan's volatile Helmand Province, officials told Fox News.

The attack occurred around 1:30 p.m. local time at Camp Antonik in Washer District in Helmand.

"Coalition security forces on the base killed the soldier to end the attack," Capt. Bill Salvin, spokesman for U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, told Fox News. "The U.S. soldiers are receiving medical treatment at this time and we will release more information when available."

The severity of the soldiers wounds was not immediately clear. Salvin declined to offer more details.

There are roughly 8,400 U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan -- more than in Iraq and Syria combined.

Additionally, the Pentagon is weighing a decision to send more U.S. forces to Afghanistan. The top U.S. commander in the country, Gen. John Nicholson, told Congress earlier this year he needed more U.S. and allied soldiers to help train the Afghan army.

A detachment of U.S. Marines is scheduled to replace the Army unit in Helmand Province in the coming weeks. Hundreds of Marines were killed fighting the Taliban in Helmand at the height of the Afghan war.

Since October, 12 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan and five Americans are currently being held hostage there.

Obama-era force management levels, known more broadly as "troop caps," have strictly controlled the number of U.S. soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan (and Iraq and Syria, too).

During a recent visit to Ft. Campbell, home of the famed 101st Airborne Division, Apache gunship pilots told Fox News about the recent deployment of 101's aviation brigade to Afghanistan -- only the helicopters and pilots deployed. The mechanics were left at home because of the troop caps.

As a result, expensive contractors were paid tens of millions of dollars to fix the helicopters overseas.

Lucas Tomlinson is the Pentagon and State Department producer for Fox News Channel. You can follow him on Twitter: @LucasFoxNews

See the original post here:
3 US soldiers shot in Afghanistan 'insider attack' | Fox News

A Long Island man who served in the Marines and lost both legs below the knees after stepping on a bomb in Afghanistan was sworn in Friday as possibly the first fully active duty double amputee police officer in the country.

Matias Ferreira, 28, graduated from the Suffolk County Police Academy in Brentwood, L.I. His first assignment as a precinct patrol officer begins next week. He told Fox 5 New York he isnt worried if he breaks a leg on the job.

VIETNAM VET AWARDED BRONZE STAR FOR BRAVERY IN BATTLE

If I break my leg I go the trunk of my car and put on a new one and Im back on duty, he told the station.

The 2011 blast in Afghanistan shattered his legs, forcing doctors to amputate. The machine-gunner spent nearly a year recovering in a hospital outside Washington.

Ferreira stands on titanium prosthetics, Newsday reported. He dreamed of being a cop as a kid.

Ferreira completed 29-weeks of training at the academy, passing the same rigorous challenges as other recruits.

VETERAN WHO HELPS HOMELESS VETS AIMS TO MAKE IT A NATIONWIDE MOVEMENT

He was born in Uruguay and moved to the U.S. when he was 6, Fox 5 reported.

Tiffiany Ferreira said she was proud of her husband.

To watch my husband achieve his dream that I think most people would thing wasnt even possible is really special, she told the station.

See more here:
Marine veteran who lost both legs in Afghanistan sworn in as NY police officer - Fox News

Of all the countries the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) has tried to conquer, Afghanistan has proved the toughest. The countrys resilience is particularly impressive given ISIS continued terrorist attacks, designed to instil fear across its provinces.

On March 5, the group released an execution video from its stronghold in Achin, a district of Nangarhar province on the border with Pakistan. In the film, two men kneel before the militants, who accuse them of working as government spies. One is shot in the head, the other is decapitated. Three days after the video came out, a bomb went off at the rear of a military hospital in the Afghan capital of Kabul. Gunmen dressed as medics then entered the building and opened fire, leading to an hours-long battle with security forces. The final death toll was 38 people, with dozens more injured. ISIS Amaq news agency wasted no time in taking credit.

Taken together and in isolation, these two events seem to suggest that ISIS is thriving in Afghanistan, just as it once did in Libya, Iraq and Syria. One could make the assumption that in Afghanistan, the group is maintaining its perverse version of law and order throughout its territory, while still having the organization and resources to strike the capital. Its what ISIS would like you to thinkbut it may not be true.

Afghan policemen arrive at the site of a blast and gunfire at a military hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan March 8, 2017. ISIS have claimed responsibility for the attack, which some believe the Taliban carried out. Omar Sobhani/Reuters

ISIS position in Afghanistan is getting weaker by the day. U.S. forces have promised to defeat the group by the end of the year, while NATO and Afghan troops have already cut the number of districts the group holds from more than 10 to between three and five.

It is a humiliating loss for ISIS, which has failed to make any significant headway in Afghanistan, a country that the Afghanistan Analysts Network describes as having historical cache as the home of the first successful jihad of modern times. Split into 398 districts, only a tiny part of Afghanistan ever belonged to ISIS. Now, less than two and a half years after the groups commanders (a bunch of former Pakistan Taliban members) pledged allegiance to ISIS, the group looks to be in the sunset of a fairly dismal attempt to raise its black flag over Afghanistan.

Back in October 2014, when the groups leaders made their oath, they might have thought that they could replicate ISIS successes elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa. But, Afghanistan already had a dominant terrorist groupand it certainly wasnt going to move over for some jumped-up jihadists.

The Taliban currently controls more territory in Afghanistan than at any time since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. Last month, the Long War Journal estimated the group held 43 of the countrys districts and was influencing or contesting 56 more. Several of the experts Newsweek spoke to said they believe rogue elements of the Taliban were behind the Kabul hospital attack but ISIS, greedy for publicity, was permitted to take credit.

Usually, the Taliban is not so lenient. The Taliban sees ISIS as a competitor on the battlefield, says the Afghanistan Analysts Network, whose members asked to be quoted only with the organizations name. When ISIS began appearing in Afghanistan and tried to get a foothold, the Taliban cracked down on them.

When ISIS tried to gain traction in the west of the country, adds Ronald Neumann, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and now president of the American Academy of Diplomacy, the Taliban sent in reinforcements and badly damaged ISIS there.

Part of the Talibans dislike of ISIS in Afghanistan is that the group is made up of former Taliban members, some of whom the Taliban expelled for being too brutal. (Members of other central and south Asian militant groups make up the rest of ISIS).

Smoke rises from the site of a blast and gunfire between Taliban and Afghan forces in Kabul, Afghanistan March 1. Reuters

That the group contains these extremists also explains its failure to gain a foothold in Afghanistan. Its very hard to win hearts and minds, when, as ISIS did in August 2015, you force a group of 10 Afghans to kneel on explosives and blow them up. The Taliban is brutal but it usually does not overreach altogether in its brutality, says Vanda Felbab-Brown, senior fellow at the U.S. think-tank, the Brookings Institution. ISIS in Afghanistan has applied the opposite tactics. It revels in brutality, brutality that is extreme even by Afghan standards.

Unlike the Taliban, says Hameed Hakimi, a research associate at the U.K. think-tank, Chatham House, ISIS does not make any concessions to local people. The group is completely anti local culture, Hakimi says. It ignores issues of honor, belief in clans and ruler networks, hierarchies of society. For ISIS, framing a caliphate goes against all of this. It see itself as a purification.

Large swathes of the Afghan population might loathe the Taliban, but it has still managed to maintain considerable local support, particularly in rural areas. Felbab-Brown points to the militants allowing the opium trade to continue versus ISIS prohibiting it. ISIS is not just killing Afghans, its costing them jobs, she says. Its hardly surprising some see the Taliban as the lesser of two evils.

The hostility ISIS faces internally, from Afghans and the Taliban, has kept it small, and made it easier for government forces and international allies to target it. Afghan national forces, the U.S., NATO and the Taliban are pounding away at ISIS, says Felbab-Brown, who also references NATOs belief that Russia is assisting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Largely friendless in the country, ISIS seems unlikely to stage a resurgence. Geographically distant from central command in Iraq and Syria, it can count on little support, particularly in terms of manpower, from the parent organization. Besieged on all sides, the U.S. promise to defeat the group could still come true.

Read more:
Why ISIS is Failing to Build a Caliphate in Afghanistan - Newsweek