Young general Sami Sadat crystallizes Afghans’ hope in war against the Taliban

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A rising figure in the Afghan army, General Sami Sadat, 36, trained abroad, is portrayed as a “hero” on social networks. The highest-ranking army officer in southern Afghanistan, he was appointed head of special forces across the country on Wednesday.

While the Afghan army gives the impression of being in decline, unable to stem the progression of the Taliban in Afghanistan, a young general with a nascent aura symbolizes resistance in the south of the country.

At 36 years old, Sami Sadat has just been appointed, Wednesday, August 11, to head the special forces throughout the country. The army’s highest ranking officer in the south, alongside his men, is fighting the battle in the streets of Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, besieged for months by the Taliban. The latter entered the city last week.

Meanwhile, several provincial capitals have fallen like dominoes into the hands of insurgents in recent days in the north of the country, where the situation appears desperate for the government. But in Lashkar Gah, against all odds in a province which is a traditional stronghold of the insurgents, the army is standing up.

“Heroes” on social networks

The valor of Sami Sadat at the head of the 20,000 men of the 215th regiment, which he has commanded for 11 months, and his mastery of communication have earned him real popularity on social networks, where he is portrayed as a “hero” or as a “savior” of the Nation. It was his new notoriety that earned him the appointment of Commander of the Special Forces.

With short hair and clean shaven face, still strapped to his uniform, he remains convinced that the army can turn the tide and hammers out a simple message: the Taliban will not pass.

“Each Taliban who comes to Lashkar Gah will die or leave disabled for life,” said General Sadat, contacted by phone by AFP just before his promotion. The words seem presumptuous, but the soldier is not, aware that it will take “weeks” to fully reclaim Lashkar Gah.

General Sadat remains optimistic. “Because I know we are going to win. I know this is our country, that the Taliban are failing, that they will fail sooner or later,” he said.

He understood that the battle of the image is at least as important as that which is played on the ground. “I think Lashkar Gah is becoming a factor of unity between people who love freedom, patriots, Afghans. I am very proud of it.”

“He is anything but naive,” judges a security official who is one of his friends. “Those who criticize him are his rivals, who evoke his young age and what they call recklessness, when it is in fact bravery: he takes calculated risks and he leads his troops from the front. “

Graduated from the prestigious King’s college in London

Trained in a German military academy, then in Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States, a graduate of the prestigious King’s college in London, General Sadat began his military career in the Afghan Ministry of the Interior.

He then went through the National Security Directorate (NDS), the intelligence services, where he perfected his understanding of a complex country, “all the factors that complicate the situation on the battlefield”.

“He has a very strategic vision and a very deep analysis of what is happening. He has done a very, very good job at Lashkar Gah”, judges a general, a former colleague of the NDS. “He understands the importance of intelligence, and to act at the right time,” adds Masoud Andarabi, former interior minister.

The army launched a counterattack in Lashkar Gah on August 4. Before that, General Sadat took care to ask the population to flee the city. However, not all civilians were able to leave. However, NGOs and the UN have repeatedly expressed concern about the violence of the fighting and the risks incurred by civilians in Lashkar Gah, also subjected to aerial bombardments by the Afghan army.

With AFP