KABUL – *Military analysts say weak leadership and improper use of Afghancommandos in operations have increased casualties to these special forcesin the country. *
Commando forces, who represent a small fraction of the 300,000 Afghanmilitary forces, have been carrying out the army’s most offensiveoperations across the country, underlining Afghanistan’s heavy reliance onthem.
While regular forces, including police, are deployed largely to defendpositions, special forces are taking the battle to militants from Kunduz,Helmand, Farah and many other restive provinces.
However, in recent times, casualties of the commandos have been increasedparticularly in volatile Farah province where around 30 commando forceshave been killed in an overnight Taliban attack, last month.
“The casualties of commando forces is due to weak management and improperuse of these forces in operations,” said head of senate’sdefense committee Mohammad Hashim Alokozai.
“Commandos are special operations unit but their promotion to corps leveland including them in various military operations weakening essence ofthese forces,” said a military expert, Javid Kohistani.
However, Afghan Army chief Lt. Gen. Mohammad Sharif Yaftali said that thereare some certain issues and they are working to do not repeat the mistakeswhich have occurred in the past.
“We are making efforts to reduce the number of casualties to commandoforces,” Yaftali said.
This comes as the government plans to double the number of current specialforces as part of a long-term strategy to bolster units stretched andexhausted by persistent attacks from Taliban and other insurgent groups