Taliban gains drive Afghan government to recruit militias

But equally significant is that the north is the traditional stronghold of Afghanistan’s minority ethnic groups, who aided the U.S.-led invasion that drove the Taliban from power nearly 20 years ago and have been part of the ruling leadership since.The traditional stronghold of the Taliban, who are mostly ethnic Pashtuns, has been in the country’s south and east.With the recent gains, Taliban now control the main border crossing with Tajikistan, a main trade route. Roggio tracks militant groups and is editor of the foundation’s Long War Journal.“The Afghan military and police have abandoned numerous outposts, bases, and district centers, and it is difficult to imagine that these hastily organized militias can perform better than organized security forces,” he said.On Wednesday at Koh Daman on Kabul’s northern edge, dozens of armed villagers in one of the first National Mobilization militias gathered at a rally. Still, even Washington’s official watchdog auditing spending says Afghan troops are disillusioned and demoralized with corruption rife throughout the government.As the districts fell, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani swept through his Defense and Interior Ministries, appointing new senior leadership, including reinstating Bismillah Khan as defense minister. Ethnic Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum Uzbek, for example, violently ousted the president’s choice for governor of his Uzbek-controlled province of Faryab earlier this year.A former adviser to the Afghan government, Torek Farhadi, called the national mobilization “a recipe for future generalized violence.” He noted the government has promised to pay the militias, even as official security forces complain salaries are often delayed for months.