[In one case last November, Taliban fighters wearing night-vision goggles attacked a police outpost in Farah Province, in western Afghanistan. By the time the predawn assault was over, eight Afghan officers lay dead in their beds, Haji Abdul Rahman Aka, the elder of the province’s Pule Regi area, said at the time. Only one Afghan officer survived.]
By Thomas Gibbons-Neff and
Jawad Sukhanyar
 |
|
A
member of the Afghan Special Forces is seen through a night-vision goggle
during
a training exercise with American Special
Forces at Camp Shorab in Helmand
Province
in September. Credit Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images
|
WASHINGTON
— Once described as an
ill-equipped band of insurgents, the Taliban are increasingly attacking
security forces across Afghanistan using night-vision goggles and lasers that
United States military officials said were either stolen from Afghan and
international troops or bought on the black market.
The devices allow the Taliban to maneuver on
forces under the cover of darkness as they track the whirling blades of
coalition helicopters, the infrared lasers on American rifles, or even the
bedtime movements of local police officers.
With this new battlefield visibility, the
Taliban more than doubled nighttime attacks from 2014 to 2017, according to one
United States military official who described internal Pentagon data on the
condition of anonymity. The number of Afghans who were wounded or killed during
nighttime attacks during that period nearly tripled.
That has forced American commanders to
rethink the limited access they give Afghan security forces to the night-vision
devices. Commanders now worry that denying the expensive equipment to those
forces puts them at a technological disadvantage, with potentially lethal
consequences.
For years, American commanders have been
reluctant to give night-vision equipment to rank-and-file Afghan soldiers and
police officers out of concern of widespread corruption among those forces. The
devices — headsets and infrared lasers — are usually given only to elite Afghan
commandos and police special mission units, according to American military
officials.
As some of this equipment falls into Taliban
hands, the militants are joining a larger trend, said David W. Barno, a retired
lieutenant general who led the war effort in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005.
Advanced equipment, such as drones and precision weapons, is being seized by
other extremist groups in other global conflict zones, he said.
“It’s going to be a problem,” Mr. Barno said,
“and it’s going to change how we operate.”
With the spread of the devices, infantry
units on patrols have been told not to use certain marking devices that can be
seen only by night-vision equipment. Helicopter crews have been made distinctly
aware that their aircraft are no longer cloaked by darkness.
In one case last November, Taliban fighters
wearing night-vision goggles attacked a police outpost in Farah Province, in
western Afghanistan. By the time the predawn assault was over, eight Afghan
officers lay dead in their beds, Haji Abdul Rahman Aka, the elder of the
province’s Pule Regi area, said at the time. Only one Afghan officer survived.
The frequency and ferocity of the nighttime
Taliban attacks are linked to attempts by Afghan forces, based in small
checkpoints across the country, to hold territory that has been wrested away
from the militants.
Previously unreported documents, obtained by
The New York Times, underline concerns about the Taliban’s growing
sophistication on the battlefield after 16 years of war — and American
commanders’ efforts to stunt it.
The documents show that the American military
has begun to send older models of night-vision hardware to regular Afghan Army
units. Those headsets cost an estimated $3,000 each, officials said.
One of the first batches of night-vision
equipment for conventional units in southern Afghanistan, part of a monthslong
pilot program, was sent to the embattled 215th Corps in Helmand Province in the
spring of 2016.
Only 161 of the 210 devices were returned,
according to the military documents obtained by The Times, and the equipment
was not effectively used, in part because the forces were not properly trained
to use it.
Afghan troops said the missing devices were
reported as “battle losses,” but could not support that claim with any proof or
records to explain where or when they were left behind, according to the
documents.
At the time, the commander of the 215th Corps
was Maj. Gen. M. Moein Faqir. He was later arrested on sweeping corruption
charges that included misuse of food money meant for his troops.
Last year, and with better results,
night-vision equipment was sent to the 205th Corps, located around Kandahar,
the military documents showed.
Five devices were lost between July and
December, when the program ended, according to the documents. Over the summer
and fall, the Afghan National Army suffered 15 percent fewer casualties around
Kandahar than it had during the same period in 2016.
The documents credited the night-vision
equipment for the marked reduction, concluding that the devices are “becoming
an integral part of base defense plans.” The American military is now planning
to equip the unit with roughly 2,500 night-vision goggles as part of what the
documents described as a concept for a “permanent program.”
Despite those measured successes, it remains
unclear if the American military will give the devices to the rest of the
Afghan Army.
The American military headquarters in Kabul
has said it equips only Special Operations units in the Afghan Army and police
forces with night-vision technology.
Capt. Tom Gresback, a spokesman for United
States forces in Afghanistan, declined to comment on the plans to distribute
the devices to the Afghan National Army, as outlined in the military documents.
He said American commanders would provide Afghan national defense and security
forces “with the resources necessary to promote security throughout
Afghanistan.”
But some American advisers closer to the
ground fight are already trying to get the technology for their Afghan
counterparts, according to a United States official. He said that would require
a decision made through the leadership in Kabul and the Pentagon to allow
American commanders to distribute the devices to even more Afghan security
forces.
With the night-vision devices, Taliban
fighters have been able to approach Afghan bases nearly undetected before
attacking.
Initially, such ambushes were attributed to
Taliban forces known as “Red Units” located in Afghanistan’s southern
provinces. But over the last year, the night-vision devices have frequently
turned up in the country’s north and east, according to two American military
officials, signaling a widespread distribution into other groups of Taliban
fighters.
Those officials said the Taliban were using
both tightly controlled American-made devices and gear that is widely available
for purchase. In some cases, American officials said, the equipment was left on
the battlefield by United States or Afghan troops, including those who were
killed in action.
In others, Afghan soldiers are believed to
have sold the devices to the extremists.
That was disputed by Gen. Dawlat Waziri, who
until recently served as spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense. He said
all night-vision equipment provided to Afghan troops by the American military
had been “accounted for.”
“No case of night vision sold by our soldiers
to the Taliban has been reported,” General Waziri said.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the
Taliban, said fighters obtained night-vision devices after attacking Afghan
bases or capturing members of the Afghan security forces.
Rank-and-file Afghan police officers are
particularly under threat by increasing numbers of deadly nighttime attacks,
said one of the American military officials. Those units are spread farther
into sparsely populated areas across Afghanistan than are army soldiers.
Officers with the Afghan National Police,
especially in the south, have been making desperate requests for the equipment
for months, the official said. The police are part of the Ministry of Interior,
which is suspected of rampant corruption.
In Helmand Province, Marine Corps advisers
are helping a request by the 505th Zone of the Afghan National Police to
receive night-vision devices, Col. C.J. Douglas, the head of the Marines’
police advising component there, said in an email.
It is unclear if the Afghan police unit will
get them.
Thomas Gibbons-Neff reported from Washington
and Jawad Sukhanyar from Kabul. Taimoor Shah contributed from Kandahar,
Afghanistan.
