This is how the CIA waged the irregular war on the Taliban
The role of CIA Zero units in the war against the Taliban. The article by Giuseppe Gagliano
The CIA has for a long time been waging a veritable irregular war on the Taliban through special units called Zero Units according to The Intercept's investigations.
The Zero units began as a CIA-controlled irregular command force. The intelligence agency has trained squads to serve as guerrillas from small US outposts, mainly in the north and east of the country, near the border with Pakistan. Much of the program's original purpose was to allow the CIA to conduct cross-border raids into Pakistan, a politically tense and rarely approved activity for US personnel.
The Zero units allowed the United States to conduct deniable operations and avoid accountability and were similar in some respects to the CIA's Phoenix program during the Vietnam War. For that program, the agency created provincial reconnaissance units composed mainly of South Vietnamese guerrillas led by American commanders.
In 2010, the Afghan government signed an agreement with the CIA to transform Unit Zero into a joint program with the former Afghan intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security, or NDS. While the missions would be jointly managed, the units continued to be funded exclusively by the United States government. The change allowed the CIA to claim plausible deniability against allegations of human rights violations or war crimes.
But the Taliban knew who the Zero units were and what they were doing. On July 25, 2019, a suicide car bomb targeted CIA officers traveling in unmarked Toyota Land Cruisers arriving at Unit Zero's Eagle Base gate.
In fact, the Taliban also had a special unit in place, namely the 313 Brigade "Badr", an elite commando unit called for the Battle of Badr 1400 years ago, when it is said that the Prophet Mohammed defeated the enemy forces. with only 313 men.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/cia-talebani-unita-zero/ on Sat, 09 Oct 2021 06:20:40 +0000.