• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Saturday, February 4, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home World Middle East

Young Afghan General Takes Fight Against Taliban to Social Media

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
08/12/21
in Middle East
aliban fighters react to a speech by their senior leader in the Shindand district of Herat province, Afghanistan

Taliban fighters in the Herat province, Afghanistan. Photo: Allauddin Khan, AP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

As a string of Taliban victories show Afghan government forces in disarray, a young general is advancing his reputation on the battlefield and on social media.

Provincial cities in the north have fallen like dominoes this week — in some cases after government forces retreated or surrendered without a fight — but in Lashkar Gah, a Taliban heartland, the army appears to be providing stiffer resistance.

Leading them is Sami Sadat, 36, the highest-ranking army officer in southern Afghanistan, in an intense fight in defense of a provincial capital the Taliban are desperate to seize.

And as the insurgents flood social media with images of surrendering Afghan soldiers and snap selfies with locals, the young general is also using Twitter and Facebook as a slick PR tool in the fight against the hardline Islamists.

He and the 20,000 men under his command in the 215th Corps have garnered thousands of followers, with their Twitter accounts awash with images of the general among the troops, posing for selfies with young civilians, and meeting local shopkeepers.

On Wednesday the defense ministry tweeted he had been promoted to lead the country’s special forces, an announcement widely applauded on the platform. 

Sadat remains optimistic despite the Taliban’s advances.

#AFG Afghan Forces are taking the fight to the Taliban in Lashkargah, in the past 24 hrs, 276 Taliban including 30 members of Al-Qaida in Indian Sub-continent who were accompanying a senior member of the Taliban coming to join the battle of Lashkargah. This is a defining battle. pic.twitter.com/w7tSciXXiy

— Sami Sadat (@SayedSamiSadat) August 6, 2021

“Because I know we are going to win,” he told AFP in a phone interview from the frontlines of Lashkar Gah.

“I know this is our country, that the Taliban are failing, that they will fail sooner or later.”

Confident, and Ruthless

But there is more to him than meets the eye, say fellow officers and friends.

“He is anything but naive,” said a security official who asked not to be named.

“He has a very strategic vision and a very deep analysis of what is happening,” said a general who was Sadat’s colleague at the spy agency.

A graduate of the prestigious King’s College in London, Sadat began his military career at the Afghan interior ministry.

He received military training in Germany, Britain, Poland, and the United States, and also served in the National Directorate of Security — Afghanistan’s spy agency.

Sadat prefers to talk about his men rather than himself and family — senior officers and their relatives are particular targets for Taliban hit squads — and declines even to say where he was born.

But he is also keen to talk about the war, which he does confidently — and ruthlessly.

“Any Taliban who comes to Lashkar Gah will die or leave disabled for life,” he told AFP.

Still, he admits it will take time to fully secure the city.

‘Do Anything for His Soldiers’

On August 4, Sadat called on residents to leave Lashkar Gah so the military could launch an all-out counteroffensive.

But he has still held back, saying he is fearful of hurting those who chose to stay behind.

Sadat described how his forces were going house-to-house to secure neighborhoods that the Taliban had infiltrated in Lashkar Gah.

“We still find civilians — especially the elderly and trapped women — who we take to safer places,” he said.

#AFG appalled by story of Taliban looting, murder and taking civilians as hostages around Lashkargah. Making women cook for them by force, taking cloths and jewelry of ladies and shooting their sons in front of their eyes. Taliban only bring misery and destruction to the world.

— Sami Sadat (@SayedSamiSadat) August 6, 2021

NGOs and the United Nations have repeatedly expressed concern about the violence and the risks incurred by civilians — threats that include aerial bombardment of suspected Taliban positions in Lashkar Gah by the Afghan military.

The loyalty and respect Sadat appears to command among the troops have been a key factor in the resistance to the Taliban in the city, despite their morale-damaging advances elsewhere in Afghanistan.

“He is not someone who gives orders from the rear while hiding in the humvee,” an Afghan security source said. 

“He will do anything for his soldiers”.

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

People cool off with a fountain's water during a heat wave in Seville, Spain
Environment

UN Confirms 2022 Among Eight Hottest Years on Record

by Staff Writer
January 13, 2023
Sudan clashes
World

Death Toll in Sudan’s Ethnic Clashes Rises to 13: UN

by Staff Writer
October 17, 2022
Taliban fighters
Featured

UN Expert Decries ‘Systematic’ Attacks on Afghan Shiites

by Staff Writer
September 12, 2022
Antonio Guterres
World

UN Chief Warns Humanity ‘One Miscalculation Away From Nuclear Annihilation’

by Staff Writer
August 1, 2022
Afghan refugees
Featured

Pakistani Migrants in Afghanistan Caught in Quake No-Man’s Land

by Staff Writer
June 27, 2022
refugees
World

More Than 100 Million People Forcibly Displaced, UN Says

by Staff Writer
May 23, 2022
Next Post
Hong Kong

Hong Kong Saw Net Outflow of 90,000 Residents Over the Last Year

A person receives the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

US Authorizes COVID Boosters for Those With Weakened Immune Systems

Please login to join discussion

Recommended

Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
A supporter of nurses' strike and NHS holds a placard

UK Faces Fresh Mass Strikes as Wage Talks Derail

February 1, 2023
Israeli security forces in Jerusalem

Palestinian Gunman Kills 7 in East Jerusalem Synagogue Attack

January 30, 2023
The Doomsday Clock reads 100 seconds to midnight, a decision made by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, during an announcement at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on January 23, 2020

‘Doomsday Clock’ Moves Closest Ever to Midnight

January 25, 2023
Police work near the scene of a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California

California Lunar New Year Mass Shooter Dead, Motive Unclear: Police

January 23, 2023
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Race on To Replace Ardern as New Zealand Prime Minister

January 20, 2023

Opinion

Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Commuters waiting for buses in Metro Manila. Philippines

Eight Billion and Counting…

November 29, 2022
Mahsa Amini protests

Imagining a Free Iran

October 24, 2022
Vladimir Putin

How 18th Century International Law Clarifies the Situation in Ukraine

September 29, 2022
Vladimir Putin

Falling for Putin

September 15, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post