WASHINGTON: Once described as an ill-equipped band of insurgents,the Taliban are increasingly attacking security forcesacross Afghanistan using night-vision goggles and lasers that US militaryofficials said were either stolen from Afghan and international troops orbought on the black market.

The devices allow the Taliban to maneuver on forces under the cover ofdarkness as they track the whirling blades of coalition helicopters, theinfrared lasers on American rifles, or even the bedtime movements of localpolice officers.

With this new battlefield visibility, the Taliban more than doublednighttime attacks from 2014 to 2017, according to one US military officialwho described internal Pentagon data on the condition of anonymity. Thenumber of Afghans who were wounded or killed during nighttime attacksduring that period nearly tripled.

That has forced American commanders to rethink the limited access they giveAfghan security forces to the night-vision devices. Commanders now worrythat denying the expensive equipment to those forces puts them at atechnological disadvantage, with potentially lethal consequences.

For years, American commanders have been reluctant to give night-visionequipment to rank-and-file Afghan soldiers and police officers out ofconcern of widespread corruption among those forces. The devices — headsetsand infrared lasers — are usually given only to elite Afghan commandos andpolice special mission units, according to US military officials.

As some of this equipment falls into Taliban hands, the militants arejoining a larger trend, said David W. Barno, a retired lieutenant generalwho led the war effort in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005. Advancedequipment, such as drones and precision weapons, is being seized by otherextremist groups in other global conflict zones, he said.

“It’s going to be a problem,” Barno said, “and it’s going to change how weoperate.”

With the spread of the devices, infantry units on patrols have been toldnot to use certain marking devices that can be seen only by night-visionequipment. Helicopter crews have been made distinctly aware that theiraircraft are no longer cloaked by darkness.

In one case last November, Taliban fighters wearing night-vision gogglesattacked a police outpost in Farah province, in western Afghanistan. By thetime the predawn assault was over, eight Afghan officers lay dead in theirbeds, 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 toattempts by Afghan forces, based in small checkpoints across the country,to hold territory that has been wrested away from the militants. Previouslyunreported documents, obtained by The New York Times, underline concernsabout the Taliban’s growing sophistication on the battlefield after 16years of war — and American commanders’ efforts to stunt it.

The documents show that the US military has begun to send older models ofnight-vision hardware to regular Afghan army units. Those headsets cost anestimated $3,000 each, officials said. One of the first batches ofnight-vision equipment for conventional units in southern Afghanistan, partof a monthslong pilot program, was sent to the embattled 215th Corps inHelmand link>province in thespring of 2016.

Only 161 of the 210 devices were returned, according to the militarydocuments obtained by The Times, and the equipment was not effectivelyused, 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 whereor 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 misuseof food money meant for his troops.

Last year, and with better results, night-vision equipment was sent to the205th Corps, located around Kandahar, the military documents showed. Fivedevices were lost between July and December, when the program ended,according to the documents. Over the summer and fall, the Afghan NationalArmy suffered 15 percent fewer casualties around Kandahar than it hadduring 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 defenseplans.” The US military is now planning to equip the unit with roughly2,500 night-vision goggles as part of what the documents described as aconcept for a “permanent program.”

Despite those measured successes, it remains unclear if the US militarywill give the devices to the rest of the Afghan army. The US militaryheadquarters in Kabul link> hassaid it equips only special operations units in the Afghan army and policeforces with night-vision technology.

Capt. Tom Gresback, a spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, declined tocomment on the plans to distribute the devices to the Afghan National Army,as outlined in the military documents. He said American commanders wouldprovide Afghan national defense and security forces “with the resourcesnecessary to promote security throughout Afghanistan.”

But some American advisers closer to the ground fight are already trying toget the technology for their Afghan counterparts, according to a USofficial. He said that would require a decision made through the leadershipin Kabul and the Pentagon to allow American commanders to distribute thedevices to even more Afghan security forces.

With the night-vision devices, Taliban fighters have been able to approachAfghan bases nearly undetected before attacking.

Initially, such ambushes were attributed to Taliban forces known as “RedUnits” located in Afghanistan’s southern provinces. But over the last year,the night-vision devices have frequently turned up in the country’s northand east, according to two US military officials, signaling a widespreaddistribution into other groups of Taliban fighters.

Those officials said the Taliban were using both tightly controlled US-madedevices and gear that is widely available for purchase. In some cases, USofficials said, the equipment was left on the battlefield by American orAfghan troops, including those who were killed in action. In others, Afghansoldiers are believed to have sold the devices to the extremists.

That was disputed by Gen. Dawlat Waziri, who until recently served asspokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense. He said all night-visionequipment provided to Afghan troops by the US military had been “accountedfor.”

“No case of night vision sold by our soldiers to the Taliban has beenreported,” General Waziri said.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said fighters obtainednight-vision devices after attacking Afghan bases or capturing members ofthe Afghan security forces. – NYT