Advertisement‘Ghost’ fightersOn paper, the Taliban should be no match for the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, known as the ANDSF. Around one-fifth of them are highly trained special forces operatives; then there are undisclosed figures for CIA-trained paramilitary groups as well as militias associated with the country’s warlords. The Taliban, the SIGAR report estimated, has around 75,000 fighters. A year later, another SIGAR report found a gap of some 58,478 personnel between recorded and actual strength levels. “We trained and equipped with modern equipment over 300,000 Afghan forces.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 11, 2021 15:33 UTC