The bodies of commandos were lined up outside the governor’s office in Sang-e-Masha, Afghanistan, on Sunday. Their company was almost entirely destroyed fighting the Taliban. Credit: Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times
New York Times: Afghan Military Deaths Since 2015: More Than 28,000
KABUL, Afghanistan — More than 28,000 Afghan police officers and soldiers have been killed since 2015, the Afghan president revealed this week, breaking with his government’s longstanding suppression of casualty totals.
The admission from President Ashraf Ghani came during a particularly bad week for Afghanistan’s beleaguered government forces, with at least 242 security force members killed from Nov. 9 to 15, according to casualty reports compiled by The New York Times. In the Jaghori district of Ghazni Province, once regarded as the safest rural district in the country, an entire company of 50 elite commandos was wiped out, all but a handful killed or wounded.
Taliban insurgents also killed dozens of police officers and soldiers in a series of attacks in Farah Province, and an additional 14 police officers in an attack on a police station in the central city of Ghazni.
Speaking by video link on Monday from Kabul, the Afghan capital, to an audience at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, Mr. Ghani noted that some 2,000 American soldiers had been killed in Afghanistan through 2014, at the end of which responsibility for security was handed to the Afghans.
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WNU Editor: It has been a bloody 24 hours .... Taliban Kills Over 40 Afghan Forces Near Iran Border (VOA). More here .... Airstrike hits Taliban convoy in Ghazni, 60 killed (Pajhwk Afghan News).
