"There Are 50,000 Taliban And Islamic Fighters In Afghanistan" Topic

"The core is the Islamic Movement Taliban with more than 40,000 militants, Russian General Staff head Army General Valery Gerasimov says

MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. The number of militants in Afghanistan stands at up to 50,000 people, united into more than 4,000 units and groups, Russian General Staff head Army General Valery Gerasimov said on Thursday.

"There are currently up to 50,000 militants in Afghanistan united into more than 4,000 units and groups of different kinds. The core is the Islamic Movement Taliban with more than 40,000 militants," Gerasimov said at the opening of the international conference on Afghanistan…"
Full article here
tass.ru/en/defense/827170

Amicalement
Armand

Probably … if not more. And IIRC, not all Taliban are in the same group, tribe, etc. … Regardless, they are still proving effective vs. the ANA/ANP.

Numbers are interesting – 50,000 divided into 4000 groups is around 12 members per group (on average), but if one group had 40,000 of those members, then the average size of the remaining groups is 2.5 members per group.

So are most groups "me and my brudder"?

Probably just the dedicated fighters. Look at how large the recruitment pool there is.

Since the tribes don't consider a A-Stan and Pakistan nations nor recognize the border, and they all favor the Taliban, there are actually hundreds of thousands of fighters available to carry out war, perhaps more.

The groups change names often, based on location, leadership, tribal influence, etc. I suspect there is a great deal of duplication in naming convention where the same group is counted several times. Groups also come and go as they do not recognize arbitrary borders. They view the land as there tribal and ancestral lands; they don't care who drew a line on a map.
That in itself makes ANY accounting extremely challenging and largely inaccurate.

That said, there are many small groups and many larger groups, but they tend to 'organize' along tribal lines. So, the head of the larger or 'parent' group gathers up a number of smaller groups from among his tribal lands to build a force.

Many of the individual acts of violence (me and my brudder) can also be referred to as a group, especially when no specific entity takes credit for the act. The 'Taliban' ultimately takes credit for such acts but the name of the individual group/cell etc is often unknown or overlooked entirely. It's much easier to blame the Taliban as a whole.

As for 'all the tribes' favoring the Taliban, that is patently untrue. The hatred for and of the Taliban is rampant in the country, but the average Joe over there is powerless to resist. That doesn't mean they welcomed us or any of the NATO forces under ISAF… they viewed us all as invaders. Given the choice, they'd be perfectly happy if everyone left, Taliban included. I had this very discussion with a local over dinner and tea one night following a visit to their village complex. He told me he was happy that our presence kept them away from his family, but would be even happier if there was no need for our presence.
I respect that.

I just meant the ones along the A-stan/P-stan border where the self-governing tribal areas are. This is the area that traditionally supply fighters and used as a haven against both current governments. -I was just too lazy to write all this the first time.

Good intel Lou … Too bad it looks like the Taliban are "winning" regardless.

@ cwlinsj

I hear you. I'm just speaking from experience as I am VERY familiar with that particular area; I spent a year patrolling it during 2010-2011. Even in that area, there are many tribals that want nothing to do with the Tallies. They just want to kick rocks and grow old.

The odd thing about that area is that they frequently fight in both directions. They hate the Paki's as much as they hate the Afghanis and would just as soon overthrow both regimes. We, and NATO by association, are just an additional impediment, as are the Pakistani Government forces. If they would just stop blowing $h1t up, they could probably be left alone to farm their rocks and caves in peace.