MeterWithout place names, the decades-long deployment of German soldiers in Afghanistan is closely related to the deployment of Kunduz City, even though Armed forces It started in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, in 2002, and ended with the withdrawal from the main base in Mazar-e-Sharif a few weeks ago. The highest hopes of German civilian and military aid workers were once pinned on the development of Kunduz, and the worst skirmishes that Bundeswehr soldiers had to endure also took place in the surrounding area of Kunduz.
It all started with a deceptive idyllic: the German task force set out for northern Afghanistan in the fall of 2003.A year ago Bundestag First send German soldiers to the country on the Hindu Kush. In Berlin, the Social Democratic Party and the Green Party ruled under Prime Minister Gerhard Schröder (Gerhard Schröder). After the Islamic al Qaeda terrorist attacks, Schröder wanted to fight alongside the Americans-especially because of them Unprepared for the then President of the United States George W. Bush began to oppose Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein in the spring of 2003.
Use F+ to access all articles on FAZ.NET for 30 days for free.
Deploy Western soldiers under the authorization of the United Nations (International Security Assistance ForceOn September 11, 2001, NATO followed closely with its own mission. This was the first and direct response to the hijacked aircraft launched by the Islamic Al-Qaida to attack the United States. The participation and military security of the Bundeswehr can be combined with the idea of going hand in hand with the civil reconstruction and economic development of this poor country marked by decades of war.
In 2009, the picture of the mission in Germany changed
When the International Security Assistance Force and NATO adjusted their deployment in this direction in 2003, they hoped that not only in the capital Kabul, but also in important provincial capitals with regional development teams (PRT), Germany decided to participate in the north. In Kunduz City.He also considered stationing in Herat in western Afghanistan, just like the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time. Joschka Fisher The Green Party of the Bundestag said-among other things, because the security situation in the northern provinces near the border with Tajikistan was considered more stable and was therefore abandoned.
German soldiers established their first field camp in central Kunduz. In the spacious manor of an Afghan businessman, the tables and benches in the field kitchen stood among carefully-tended rose beds. Six months later, 250 German soldiers and approximately 400 employees from 70 aid organizations were deployed to Kunduz. While the Bundeswehr began training the Afghan army, the German police organized night courses for newly recruited Afghan police, teaching them reading and writing.
Five years later, the situation has changed drastically. Not only have suicide attacks and booby traps caused increasing danger, but direct attacks by Taliban militia fighters have also increased. At the same time, the Bundeswehr assumed the military security responsibility for the entire northern part of Afghanistan and moved its headquarters to Mazar-e-Sharif; for security reasons, the Kunduz field camp has moved out of the city and moved to a hill at the airport. , And protect it with a stone wall.
An incident near Kunduz in September 2009 fundamentally changed the German public’s perception of the mission in Afghanistan: According to the order of the German regional commander, Colonel George Klein, two of them were bombed by American fighter jets. Taliban Hijacked oil tanker; about 100 people were killed in the resulting explosion. Except for Taliban fighters, most of the victims were Afghan civilians.
A pessimistic prediction comes true
The Bundeswehr’s losses also increased. On Good Friday in 2010, three German soldiers were killed and eight wounded in the Taliban’s worst attack to date on the Bundeswehr. After this “Good Friday battle”, the assessment of the nature of the German mission has changed; the then Defense Minister Theodor zu Guttenberg now says that he “understands everyone who talks about war.” “. Only a few weeks later, four more German soldiers fell on their patrol in the Taliban attack, and five others were injured.
In the next few years, Western military missions increased the training range and speed of the Afghan security forces, and began planning to reduce their presence. At the beginning of 2014, NATO’s mission was re-transformed into a pure training mission. The Bundeswehr left the camp in Kunduz, during which as many as 900 German soldiers were stationed there and withdrew to Mazar-i-Sharif. Even at that time, at the end of 2013, the then mayor made a pessimistic prediction of what would happen now: the withdrawal came too early, and schools, hospitals and streets built with the help of the West were threatened with destruction.
The prediction came true. In the spring of 2015, the Taliban began to besiege the city for the first time; in the fall, they managed to temporarily conquer Kunduz by surprise attack. The German military advisers returned to the Pamir camp above the city to advise and advise the Afghan armed forces on the counterattack. Even after the city was recaptured, they still existed to varying degrees. At the end of November 2020, after U.S. President Donald Trump drastically reduced the size of the U.S. military in Kunduz, the Bundeswehr finally left Kunduz. Now the Taliban are back.
