An officer and a Taliban leader

Reversing the Kunduz airlift

This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.

Those who know the history of the Pakistani army’s battles won’t find this least surprising: very often, “mujahideen leaders” carry documents that identify them as Pakistani military officers.

British officials covered up evidence that a Taliban commander killed by special forces in Helmand last year was in fact a Pakistani military officer, according to highly placed Afghan officials.

The commander, targeted in a compound in the Sangin valley, was one of six killed in the past year by SAS and SBS forces. When the British soldiers entered the compound they discovered a Pakistani military ID on the body. [Times Online]It is hard to say which is worse: whether this deputation was on official orders, or whether it was purely voluntary.

If you would like to share or comment on this, please discuss it on my GitHub Previous
My essay in The Friday Times: Nuclear power for a nuclear power Next
My op-ed in Mint: The civil-military balance