How did the Americans destroy the soldiers of the Afghan army?
Author: "Unknown Soldier", pseudonym of a former Afghan special forces officer
Prepared by Hasib Sangar, correspondent of "Sangar" in the Hindu Kush
In the photo: One of the Afghan National Army bases in Mangalha
The American deployment program for the Taliban in Baghlan province started in August 2018. The Taliban attacked an Afghan National Army (ANA) platoon in the village of Alauddin in the Baghlani Jadid (New Baghlan) district, killing more than 50 young soldiers, mostly Tajiks and Uzbeks. I personally unloaded the corpse of more than 50 dead from the trucks with my own hands.
Three days after this incident, an operation was carried out by forces stationed in Baghlan. We went to Alauddin, where I personally participated in the operation. We cleared the whole area and occupied it.
However, according to a treacherous plan prepared by the military leadership, the operational forces were withdrawn from Alauddin, and after a few kilometers in the opposite direction, three new bases were established in the village of Mangalha - one for the local police or militia, another for the national police, and a fourth for National Army. The latter was larger and located at the top of the hill. Most of the guys stationed at the bases were Tajiks and Uzbeks from the provinces of Badakhshan, Baghlan, and Takhar.
The creation of the bases took almost a month. There were many government forces there, including General Jalal Yaftali and his brigade were also involved in this mission. About 40 ANA soldiers were stationed at the bases, slightly smaller than the police and the people's militia, more than 100 people in total.
When everything was completed, other forces left the area and settled in Puli Bashirkhan, a few kilometers from the center of the area. The leadership stationed a platoon of the ANA there and said that the rest of the forces should go to Puli Khumri, the center of Baghlan province. It was decided that 5 tanks from police special forces, 8 tanks from the army, and 4 tanks from the local police would be present to support the Mangalho bases for one or two nights and then leave the area.
Then at the operational meeting, it was decided that I should stay in the area with a group of special forces to support the bases.
In the evening of the same day, two American planes flew over our heads and headed towards the mountains of Alauddin. One of my friends noticed that these planes were very suspicious. Where are they going at this time? What is their plan? Indeed, it was suspicious. One of ours contacted his sources in Alauddin and learned that about 50 American soldiers had landed behind the mountains of the village.
At 21:00 I received a call from headquarters to get ready and go to Mangalho. When I moved with 5 tanks, out of 8 army tanks, only one moved with us. Of the 4 tanks of the local police, two tanks reached Mangalho before us, and there was no news from the other two.
While I was on the road, one of my friends from the headquarters called me and said, "commander sahib, you have been betrayed, tonight they have a plan for you, maybe they will kill you, and this is your last night and your last operation. Pay attention to this! Think of yourself!" But my friends were on the front line and were waiting for us. I said to myself: come what may, everything is in the hands of God!
I made a plan in such a way that when we go deeper, the enemy could not cut us from behind. To do this, we placed part of our strength in the right place and went forward.
The battle began at about one in the morning. The battle began at about one in the morning. The attack was on us - reinforcements, police bases, and the local militia. I later learned that the entire Taliban force in Baghlan province was involved in this Taliban attack. They were assisted by the Taliban of Chakhardara and Kalai Zal districts of Kunduz, Samangan, and other provinces, and foreign terrorists also participated.
Saeed Hakim, a special forces soldier, was killed that night in Mangalha
Unfortunately, the forces we placed behind us were brutally attacked by the Taliban. They were forced to retreat, and most of them died. We were surrounded. The Taliban took control of the area.
When we took refuge in one of the houses, we could hear the voices of foreigners on the other side of the wall, as well as on the radio, speaking in a language completely unknown to us - neither Pashto, nor Dari, nor English, nor Punjabi. They were foreign terrorists, apparently speaking Turkic languages.
In less than half an hour, both bases fell - both the militia and the police. Here we noticed that there was no fight in the ANA base on the top of the hill, and they did not help us from there. We hoped that when this base was still holding and it had not yet been attacked, we could get over to it and continue the fight from there with the help of soldiers.
It was our only way to salvation. We tried to contact the base, but it did not work - mobile communications and walkie-talkies did not work. Everything was cut off. The rest of the forces in the village either fled or were killed.
There was me and four other people from the police special forces. With the method and tactics that we had, we fought until the morning prayer and thus saved our lives. All the guys who were with us, about 15 people, were killed.
Finally, with the tank we had, we moved to the ANA base. When we moved, we were fired upon from several positions, but we resisted and went forward. The enemy tried his best to destroy us. The Taliban followed us on their motorcycles. Our tank was disabled by a missile hit. We left it under the hill and went up to the base ourselves. Fortunately, God helped us and we were able to leave the battle area and get to the ANA base.
But I would like us to die and not see all this!
When we got to the base, we saw a terrible sight. All equipment outside the base was destroyed, and the soldiers were all covered in blood and shot dead. The gates were open. When we entered, we saw that everyone was killed and no one was alive.
Our hopes were dashed. Staying there was tantamount to death, we climbed the mountain. Miraculously, we left the area through the mountains, and on the way, we met a wounded young soldier under a rock. He was wounded in the arms and legs, blood soaked his clothes. We took him with us and asked what happened. Why didn't you support us? Why did your soldiers die without fighting?
The story he told was very shocking and unbelievable and it multiplied our fear tenfold. He told me the following story, which I quote:
“At about one in the morning, when the Taliban attacked the bases of the special forces of the police and the people's militias, we fired two rockets at the enemy and wanted to support you. But two grenades or rockets hit the base of the camp, from which there was red fire and smoke. But two grenades or rockets hit in the center of the base, where red fire and smoke came from. Within a minute, all the personnel at the base were poisoned and everyone collapsed in exhaustion. No one could take a weapon to shoot. It's like everything happened in a dream. At that moment, a heavily armed group entered the base from the side of the upper part, from the side of the mountain. I saw with my own eyes that they were all Americans. They had laser weapons and M4s, they were dressed in American military uniforms, and they had helmets and night vision goggles on their heads and duffel bags on their backs. In general, they were fully armed. They entered the base and started shooting our fighters. One by one they fired at my comrades, but none of us could open fire. We just watched as we were killed. I looked at them and wondered why I couldn't shoot them. We were poisoned, and the poison made us so powerless that only our eyes were open, and our arms and legs did not work. They also shot at me and I slowly fell into the trench next to which I was. The bullets hit me in the arm and leg. At that moment, I completely lost consciousness. Later, I came to my senses from the sounds of gunshots and rockets and said on my own that I needed to get out of there".
The soldier was a slender young man from the Kishm district of Badakhshan province. I forgot his name. He told and wept with excitement and shouted: “I swear to God, I swear to the Koran, the Americans killed us, not the Taliban. We just sat and watched as we were being killed!”
In the photo: Local police soldiers, some of whom were martyred in Mangalha that night
We, who were downstairs and did not know about this turn of events, came to the conclusion that the Americans landed in the mountains in helicopters and massacred these ANA soldiers. They entered from the mountains and retreated the same way. They did not take away the weapons of the soldiers and did not destroy equipment or the building of the base. Everything from the bases we built at great expense to tanks and weapons fell into the hands of the Taliban.
We secretly moved to the center of the region - Baghlani Markazi (Central Baghlan) by the routes known to us. On the way, we met a group of ANA soldiers and handed over that soldier to them. I didn't see him again. Most likely, he left the service because he swore that he would no longer serve this corrupt system, traitorous leaders, and wild Americans who killed his comrades in arms before his eyes.
A day later, we reached the center of the Baghlani Jadid district, and I heard the news of my martyrdom from my friends. More than 100 dead remained on the battlefield... I note that we were promised help, but the forces of the special police forces and the ANA did not take a single step to our side from Bashirkhan's Puli. We were betrayed as a result of a deal between the Taliban, the Americans, and their mercenary generals from the government of Ashraf Ghani.
But the Taliban did not stop at just the bases taken from us. They soon acquired 11 more government military bases with all facilities and equipment under a preliminary deal. The bases surrendered to them with all the equipment and weapons without a fight. Eight villages came under their control, including Mangalha, Qaisarkhil, Kokchenar, Arabha, Gholambay, and others in the Baghlani Jadid district.
The Taliban settled a kilometer from the center of the region and did not retreat anymore. Ghani's government took no action to regain lost ground, and this continued until all of Afghanistan was surrendered to the Taliban.
The village of Mangalha is named after the Pashtun tribe "Mangal", and its inhabitants are "naqilins" (resettlers) from the southern provinces of Paktika and Paktia, who were brought to Baghlan during the time of Zahir Shah. They cooperated with the Taliban, and one of the reasons this group took root in the region was the cooperation of the Mangal tribe with it. On the other hand, this region of Baghlan province was on the route of terrorist groups from south to north. Actually, this route from Helmand, Samangan, and Baghlan to Kunduz and Badakhshan was created by the Americans with Ghani's special services. Foreign terrorists who had taken refuge in this area have now moved to the Inkhisorot microdistrict of the city of Pul-i-Khumri, the Kelagai valley of Baghlan province, and the provinces of Kunduz and Badakhshan and are operating freely. Thus, the United States and their protege Ghani moved the terrorists from Pakistani Waziristan to northern Afghanistan on the borders of Central Asia.
Two more points: firstly, none of the Afghan and Western media paid attention to this massacre; Secondly, none of the investigating authorities asked me and my associates what happened, because they were all involved in this deal and national betrayal and acted according to the US plan.
This was my own testimony to how America plays the game in Afghanistan. Nothing personal. The United States betrayed us, but we will return our Afghanistan. Never trust America.
