Inside the Afghan National Army (Full Length)

[Music] every city is equipped with a safety build which can fasten and open it this [Music] way war in Afghanistan comes and goes with the Seasons Winter pushes the combatants into hiding and the arrival of spring signals the beginning of what is known as the fighting season we will be able to remove a total of 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by next summer with the transfer of power to the Afghan National Army 2013 fighting season was the one that would reveal how prepared Afghanistan's Army would be in keeping the Taliban at [Music] [Music] Bay several months before the start of the fighting season we traveled to Kandahar the second largest city in Afghanistan and the last major city NATO reclaimed from Taliban control we wanted to see what the Afghan National army or Ana was doing to prepare its troops for the coming summer months it would be the first time that the Afghan soldiers would be operating without their American or British counterparts Major General Abdul Hamid is the leader of the 205th Corp he was a former mujahidin fighter who was in prison during the Taliban Reign and has since risen to become the highest ranking military officer in the south in 2011 he was a target of a failed assassination attempt explod iives were placed under his chair during a graduation ceremony and detonated only moments after he stood up to hand out the students [Music] degrees for foreign for [Music] we arrived at the 205th core situated 25 miles out inside Kandahar City where 54,000 soldiers are stationed out of the approximate 370,000 Afghan National forces for in 2013 it was estimated that Afghanistan's literacy rate was about 28% the US had spent approximately $200 million on programs to educate the Afghan National Army but around half of them are still reading below a first grade level where these troops will be stationed depends on both the recruits level of training and the requirements of commanders of local bases like this one in [Music] [Music] argand for the Ana conducts constant patrols stopping in searching everyone who passes by but somehow the locals don't seem to complain either they've just gotten used to this or it actually provides them with some sense of security foree speee [Music] [Music] foree [Music] Argan is known for its pomegranate Fields so when you do foot patrols it's so easy for the enemy to kind of hide behind trees or kind of lie down in the field and just like kind of come up and attack but when we went on this Patrol it seemed like like everything was fine there was kids running around there wasn't any alarming sign of danger three years ago Americans were killed on a similar Patrol just across the field they're saying you can see the difference now they interact with the villages more and that it technically is according to them much safer there's a person praying and uh and I asked a soldier once if like you know when they do all these patrols with all this gear and they're going through all these farmlands you know guys's like farming I'm like don't they get scared like here you are farming there's a guy with a solders suddenly appears you know and he's like no no farmers are happy that we're we're doing this and then when we spoke to the people like oh how do you feel they're like oh that's that's fine yeah we're we're we're good that said these regular foot patrols are a constant reminder to residents here that they still live in a war [Music] zone soldiers who were severely wounded in that war find their way to the Kandahar Military Hospital if they're lucky it's the only welle equipped facility in the southern region and serves the six surrounding provinces with little medac support foreign [Music] [Music] speee [Music] it seems the hospital doesn't just treat members of the Afghan National army they treat their enemies in the Taliban as well [Music] Tali for speee foreign speech for spee [Music] speee [Music] [Applause] [Music] wow this Army is 12 years old it's a it's a baby really and there was a huge amount of training and there was a lot of push to get this Army rolling and you know fighting instantly they seem confident but it remains to be seen how well their preparations will hold up once the bullets begin to fly so we wanted to see how they would tackle during the fighting season without the American support and that was first time in April and now the second time being in July which is supposed to be at its peak as you can see through this window here you will see broken windshield when we were here the first time in April there was the first ever hail storm first after 60 years every single windshield of every truck car was broken I guess some have been replaced and some have not I'm not sure if it was due to lack of money or general inefficiency but the fact that the Ana couldn't see where they were driving for the past 3 months it was quite alarming fore not only are the American troops leaving Afghanistan but so are their weapons an army that began with some of the most sophisticated military kit is suddenly being stripped down to Soviet era hand me- Downs we're on our way to panai to a place called Zang along this road there's going to be Taliban hideouts where if there is such a convoy going towards bases they will attack they will send out Rockets or they will try to stop them so they don't get to the base or to say that hey we're still here there's a guy with an army uniform in the tractor [Applause] fore they're deing there for the Army doesn't have M wraps which technically those are the ones will protect you from IEDs M wraps or M resistant ambush protected vehicles are designed to protect against IEDs which are often buried along this road the base had all the trappings of an American military compound but without the Americans it looked like a ghost town and actually it felt kind of lonely on many days Thea here at zangabad Camp come under attack whether by rocket by sniper fire or even the random grenade attacks Min injuries from these random attacks can be dealt with locally but severely injured soldiers need to be transported by air to the Kandahar Military Hospital which presents a problem because they have to transport people through an ambulance to the road taking them directly to the hospital in the 205 uh 205th core where the main Military Hospital is so this is one huge problem here is the access time is over time is over the Ana minder wasn't too happy when the soldiers started to complain on camera we continue traveling south through the region known as a horn of pan which borders Pakistan and has long been a Taliban stronghold out of the 800 bases only 100 will remain open under the Ana control so either the Taliban is no longer a threat in these abandoned zones or the Afghan Army lacks the resources to keep the facilities operational for Fore spee foreign for throughout the withdrawal the Americans have been taking all of the GPS systems night vision goggles and tracking Balloons with them so the Ana must rely on binoculars walkie-talkies and The Limited training they've received for foreign spee fore foreign fore speee for for [Music] [Music] for there's some fighting going on outside of here but run on the truck we need to be run to the truck there was a while we were inside there was some fighting going on just around the corner here so we had to make sure that we all run in pretty quickly when I was told that Pai was under control of the ton fire 5 years ago and now you know it's pretty safe and I'm like okay well where's your school you know there's no school so wood is really safe you know if if safe means we can walk around during the day but then we can't build a school cuz it get blown up is that safe according to the Afghan NGO Safety Office there was a sharp rise in Taliban attacks in 2013 but the Ana commanders insist that they have more control than ever before they say that this is simply gorilla Warfare but sometimes gorilla Warfare wins War [Music] we had been on a foot patrol with the Ana several months earlier in argand do now we wanted to examine if things had changed in the supposed height of the fighting [Music] season during our embed with the Ana a lot of our scheduled plans changed due to their constant worry of an attack or landmines we had a minder with us at all times and we were only allowed to join certain foot patrols close to the bases finally they agreed to let us touch Brown outside of the military base for they said was a routine foot patrol we're following the path of a of a foot patrol and we're going to make our way through the villages they're saying that this place has been cleared they haven't found anything there's been no sign of the enemy or the sign of the Taliban we had come to notice that there was a lack of protocol in the way foot patrols were conducted and wondered if some of these were stag it's not really a for here you have the Afghan National Army and then you have the Afghan National Police then there are the local police who we at first took for the militia they with the National Police who fall under the command of a local warlord known as Abdul Raz not sure how quickly they'd be able to respond to an attack as a smell of freshly smoked hashish lingered in the air for so what's happening he saying that if anybody's coming here they should let me know before that because who they who's saying this an Afghan policeman stopped Us in the bizaar because news of her arrival had gotten lost somewhere between the Army and the police things quickly turn into a power struggle about who controlled what as more responsibility falls on the police communication between the two Security Forces become key the next morning the Ana conducted a joint foot patrol between two camps through the village nuni we couldn't help but notice that this time everyone had body armor well it's about 6:20 a.m. and we're just starting on a foot patrol we're walking to this other Camp called Shar and then from there is actually where there for patrol starts where they'll go through the villages [Music] there [Music] fore I think that most people are used to it now the local your dear local police coming again so now everyone you see here is from the lp the National Police and the local police are now in control of all the checkpoints and the security in the cities and villages the local police or the lp or officers appointed from The Villages they are patrolling and can choose to wear local clothing kind of like a community watch I don't know I think it's just funny cuz those guys are just kind of walking ahead and these guys are like you know staying in protocol checking for everything the police work very closely with the with the Ana they deliver reports to them and then Ana analyzes this so they're always in contact I mean the military does support the police here careful when you're walking down the street here there's a lot of Mines so he's like make sure you step foot on where you've seen like footsteps before but I like it's everywhere [Applause] no we have our D miners in the front there's only two guys with the metal detectors who try to see if they can find mines on the way and then each of them have have a person who would guard them and make sure that while they're checking the ground and looking down they have someone that is looking out for them [Music] while doing their patrols the Ana and the police forces must honor the local custom of asking for the women to leave before they enter any home traditionally if the women of a house mixed with strangers they can be put to death don't spee spee spee I foreign speee foree fore I mean the Taliban used to live here they us took over this area and obviously in this past 5 years they've left and the villagers who we saw along the way who've been living here for years like 20 years 50 years 70 years have their own homes back again random searches by the Army have become part of everyday life in Kandahar if not Afghanistan in general but the Army insists the war is winding down and they are retiring to their bases leaving day-to-day Security in the hands of the Afghan National Police who we would soon meet hey k we're getting ready to go meet the police and since the police are the most highly targeted type of people in the city be nice to wear a jacket while we're with them we met with major ratah atrai kandar's Deputy police chief who is making routine inspections of the police precincts his boss General Abdul razza is one of the most feared men in the [Music] area [Music] fore foree right now the intention is to meet the Border chief police his name is Abdul razak in 1994 both razak's father and uncle were killed by the Taliban in Kandahar after this he joined the asakai anti-taliban forces in 2001 and then Rose to command the Afghanistan border of police and then in 2013 he became [Music] General for he's taking over kandar they call him pesha means you know the prince he's about the people so he's kind of like you know starts from the people and he's kind of like we're going to go out there every single person who commits a crime we're going to punish them we're going to cut off their hands it's ruthless and now he's gotten a lot of respect what is it that you what you believe in that made you know less crime and was able to establish what is now a much more safer City fore for one thing that um you know I'm actually quite curious about is um you know there's a lot written about you you're quite a notorious person in while razak has been implicated in a 2006 Massacre accused of running drugs and a violating human rights he has been able to convince the US military that he is an effective Ally against the Taliban and so he continues to receive support from the American government in the years to come as International forces pull out of Afghanistan we will find out just what that support has [Music] brought today is the first day of Ramadan It's All Quiet on the base beside the sounds of the soldiers preparing for the evening [Music] feast foreign foreign speech the whole idea of coming to Kandahar was to try to see what would be happening during the fighting season while the Americans were transitioning out we experienced a much quieter Patrol than was expected I mean I'm not saying in a day or two you're going to suddenly see all this but um it was different than what we had expected another thing that I started looking at was people's reaction to the Army and it's stuck with me and that was the old man praying in the pomeg grounded field and I know about 12 guys 12 Soldiers with guns showing up you know around him he there's like 12 Soldiers with guns around here I mean if I was kind of hanging out in my garden I'd be a little concerned you know I'd show a little bit of reaction but he didn't he was just like you know allahar and he continued and and it it made me think that this is like it's become part of everyday life you know everyone here's pretty young they come from environments where fighting isn't stop so you're kind of at home and there's fighting and then you come to the base and then there's fighting so it's not like oh I'm suddenly in the military I'm going to you know I'm going to go fight you know it's part of your kind of it's part of your everyday life in a way so here you have high ranking soldiers who went through one war and they learned strategies through there soly come into a new war and with a whole new book and a whole new set of rules whole new machines in a very new Army and now go and fight and I see all this and I know it just brings about more questions [Music] spee at peaceful moments like this it's easy to forget the horrors that were in everyday occurrence for the last 10 [Music] [Music] years the Afghan National Army was relatively successful at holding off the Taliban in 2013's fighting season but 2014 brings not only the exit of most of the NATO troops but the election of a new president with President Hamid carai transitioning out and the future of NATO's involvement still undecided we can't help but wonder if the Taliban were just saving their energy waiting for the foreign powers to get out of the way so they can reclaim what they had just lost over over a decade ago 2014 Will Reveal how stable the nation Afghanistan truly [Music] [Music] is

Channel: VICE News

Views: 4,954,649

Keywords: Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police, Inside the Afghan National Army, gelareh kiazand afghanistan, gelareh kiazand, ANA, Kabul, Abdul Raziq, Border Police, Taliban, Al Qaeda, Punjab, ISI, achakzai, Panjwai, Kandahar, ISAF, Marines, m-17, helicopters, IED, MRAP, Karzai, drawdown, withdrawal, Pakistan, Pashtun, vice news, vice, Terrorism, war, army, documentary, News Report, Al-Qaeda, VICE Documentaries, VICE Videos, News, vice news documentary, taliban afghanistan

Id: Tlja_ZhNXdw

Length: 43min 29sec (2609 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 01 2014