The Taliban is close to capturing 10 more districts in Afghanistan, according to TOLO News. Anonymous government officials say districts in Uruzgan, Nangarhar, Sar-e Pol provinces, among others, are at risk of falling to the Islamist insurgent group. Officials say corruption has undermined the Afghan military's ability to respond to rising Taliban threats by interfering with the selection of local commanders. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry decried the interference from "non-military individuals" in the appointment of local military commanders. The Institute for the Study of War has a great new assessmentand map of the fighting in the country.
Hundreds of fighters from the Haqqani network overran a small, 90-man outpost in Paktia province, the New York Times reports. The Haqqani network has played an increasingly influential role within the Taliban as the group's new emir Mullah Haibatullah Akhunzada relies on it for the military savvy he lacks. The move by the network in Paktia could foreshadow more dramatic operations in the southeast of Afghanistan.
- Forrest: A partial threat assessment of Afghanistan
Decentralizing the military bureaucracy and teaching Afghan forces to survive without the Western largesse have been a constant challenge. Both encouraged dependence and fostered corruption, which is viewed by many as the single largest obstacle to effective Afghan military performance in the war. – Washington Post
Now, more than 14 years after that brutal fight, in which seven Americans ultimately died, the Air Force says that Chief Slabinski was wrong — and that Sergeant Chapman not only was alive, but also fought on alone for more than an hour after the SEALs had retreated. The Air Force secretary is pushing for a Medal of Honor, the military’s highest award, after new technology used in an examination of videos from aircraft flying overhead helped officials conclude that the sergeant had killed two fighters with Al Qaeda — one in hand-to-hand combat — before dying in an attempt to protect arriving reinforcements. – New York Times
As the Afghan Air Force gets equipped with new fleets of rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft, American-run aviation school houses managed by industry giant Raytheon are preparing to graduate their largest classes of Afghan aviators to date. – Military.com
Caitlin Forrest writes: The Afghan unity government faces a political crisis because of deadlines in September imposed by the original agreement through which it came to power. If Afghanistan remains on this course, global extremist organizations will reconstitute their sanctuaries in Afghanistan’s ungoverned spaces and pose enduring threats to U.S. national security. – Institute for the Study of War