The International Security Assistance Force leaves room for Resolute Support, the new NATO mission that the Italians will carry on in the coming months at the TAAC West - in the West of Afghanistan - at whose command is General Angelo Maurizio Scardino of the Bersaglieri Brigade " Garibaldi ".
With the end of Isaf, the combat tasks that the countries of the international community had had failed. Efforts to complete the training of Afghan forces remain and intensify, so that they are able to defend their own territory from the "enemies of Afghanistan".
An expression of new coinage, the latter, which includes a vast category of subjects, from the common criminal, to that forming part of a structured organization, devoted mainly to the sale of opium, to the Taliban ready to prepare attacks with the use systematic IED, improvised explosive devices. The control of the territory, from this point of view, is already entrusted to the Afghans. It is they, in a report given to the forces of Resolute support, to have noticed the increase, in the area of Herat, of the dissemination of IED in the 2014.
A sobering figure, but against which the commander of the 207th Afghan Army Corps, Taj Mohammed Jahed (photo), says he is prepared to react, thanks to the work carried out shoulder to shoulder with the Italians who have dealt and are busy of army training. “As far as our area of expertise is concerned, we have full control of the whole West area and the provinces of Herat, Farah, Ghor and Baghdis are safe. The Taliban are unable to unleash a complex and dangerous offensive. At most they manage to carry out some ambushes, some attacks which, thanks to our attention, fail to cause great damage ”.
The security that Jahed shows is due, in large part, to the commitment of the Italian contingent that has been able to build a more organized system for local forces. "Afghans are great fighters, they know what fighting means. They only need a final training to simplify and make the chain of command and therefore internal communications more fluid, ”specifies Colonel Leonardo Privitera, commander of the Mat (Military advisory team).
And if the Mat takes care of the armed forces, it is the Pat (Police Advisory Team) of the Carabinieri of Tuscania who is responsible for training the police forces. The police are already functioning and have given excellent results in the fight against crime and in the seizure of weapons. 119 will soon be activated, the number to which citizens will be able to report episodes of crime, similar to our 112.
In short, Afghanistan must now really begin to walk on its own feet. In fact, Resolute support will be the last operation put in place for the benefit of local forces. Then also the Herat military base will be left to Afghan forces, thanks to the Itaca 2 operation, which marks the transfer of men and vehicles from Herat to Italy.
The military airport will therefore be managed by the Afghans. For other infrastructures, the intended use will probably be changed.
One of the projects in the field is to make the base a "home" for the University. A growing university, that of Herat, to which an increasing number of women is registered thanks to the merits of ISAF.
What will be in the future, however, cannot yet be established. The former headquarters of the PRT, for example, has already been transformed into luxury restaurants. Decisions, the latter, in which domestic politics will have a great weight.
Daniela Lombardi
(photo of the author)
