For 20 consecutive days, the Afghan Special Security Forces defeated the Taliban in every operation conducted in Paktika province, Afghanistan, Dec. 3-23, 2017. The Commandos of 2nd Special Operations Kanadak (Battalion) and Paktika’s Police Special Unit teamed up with forces from the 203d Afghan National Army Corps to remove more than 65 Taliban from the province.
“The momentum is now with the Afghan Security Forces and the Taliban cannot win,” said Gen. John Nicholson, NATO Resolute Support commander in a Nov. Pentagon Press briefing.
The Taliban were unable to stop the movement of Afghan SOF and ANA throughout the province. Degraded in number, the Taliban no longer seek decisive engagements against the better-trained and equipped Afghan forces.
“First, the Taliban is not a popular insurgency,” Nicholson has stated. “The Afghan people outright reject them. Up to 90 percent believe that a return to Taliban rule would be bad for the country.”
The combined Afghan force also destroyed a Taliban demolition lab responsible for the production of homemade explosives, three weapons caches, and a Taliban radio tower used to amplify anti-government propaganda.