New U.S. training unit in Afghanistan faces old problems

17/8/2018 13:53

        Captain Joe Fontana, a team leader with the U.S. army's 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade, is part of a new unit but he is working on problems that have been stubbornly familiar to American military advisers in Afghanistan for years.
        
        The 1st SFAB was formed last year as a new force of experienced advisers, to focus U.S. army training and support for Afghan troops and, in future, for other foreign armies.
        
        It deployed to Afghanistan in March, working with the Afghan army's (ANA) 203rd Corps and putting U.S. advisers, previously largely restricted to Corps headquarters, together with frontline brigades and battalions for the first time since most international forces left in 2014.
        
        The SFAB has arrived at a time of increasing pressure on the
        ANA from Taliban fighters who overran a series of outposts and
        stormed the strategic city of Ghazni this week.