Afghanistan’s wounded warriors are off the front lines but their battle has just begun

Sgt Muneer Ahmad was wounded in the line of duty but is receiving no assistance from the Afghanistan military. Johannes Eisele / AFP

GULBAHAR, Afghanistan // Taking his first faltering steps since his left leg was blown off by a landmine, Sergeant Muneer Ahmad is grim proof that the Afghan army is paying a heavy price in its war against the Taliban and struggling to care for its wounded.

Sgt Ahmad, 23, trod on a mine while fighting in the southern province of Kandahar six months ago as Afghan forces assume control of security after 12 years of US-led Nato operations.

With the Nato mission now shrinking rapidly, the future of Afghanistan rests with its national army and police, but rocketing casualty rates point to weaknesses in first-aid and a lack of long-term treatment.

US officials said that at the height of last year’s “fighting season” more than 400 army and police were being killed in action every month, while the Afghan government does not release figures — to avoid damaging public morale.

“I was very happy being a soldier,” Sgt Ahmad said as he struggled with his new prosthetic limb at an International Committee of the Red Cross orthopaedic centre in Gulbahar, 75 kilometres north of Kabul.

“I have heard no news of any compensation or pension. I was not receiving any treatment at all, so my family brought me here. The army didn’t do anything.”

Sgt Ahmad is still receiving his monthly salary of 12,000 Afghanis (Dh790) but said he does not know who will pay for any follow-up medical treatment and doubts whether the army will find him a desk job.

“It is a good feeling to be moving again,” he said, sweating slightly as he gripped a handrail and took cautious sidesteps. “It is only my second day. It is difficult.”

Sgt Ahmad was in charge of an army checkpoint in the district of Panjwayi when his left leg was torn to shreds below the knee.

“A civilian had been slightly injured by an explosion,” Sgt Ahmad recalled.

“He came back, wanting a witness letter explaining how he had been hurt, so I took a few steps away to write it, and the mine exploded under me.”

Sgt Ahmad was taken by car to the nearest military hospital and then flown, two days later, by a small Afghan plane to Kabul to be operated on.

In some ways, he was lucky.

There have been many accounts of Afghan soldiers bleeding to death from even minor battle wounds while waiting for air evacuation by the skeletal Afghan air force or the declining number of US helicopters.

“I lost several friends in Kandahar,” Sgt Ahmad said. “We were stronger than the Taliban, but they planted a lot of mines.”

Like all amputees treated by the Red Cross, Sgt Ahmad is being taught to walk again by former patients who have also lost limbs.

“Every day we have soldiers and police who come in, very severely wounded. We do receive a lot,” said Alberto Cairo, the Italian head of the Red Cross rehabilitation programme, which has centres in Gulbahar, Kabul and five other cities.

“The military hospitals ask us if we are ready to take their patients, and we always say yes. Sometimes they are brought in by military vehicles, but soldiers receive the same treatment as everyone else.”

Last year, the Red Cross registered 1,500 new patients who were direct victims of war in Afghanistan.

There are fears that the toll of wounded soldiers and police will rise further this year, with Taliban militants likely to target presidential elections in April and as Nato combat troops complete their withdrawal by December.

General Joseph Dunford, Nato’s top commander in Afghanistan, has repeatedly warned that high casualty rates threaten the sustainability of the 350,000-strong Afghan security forces.

But General Mohammed Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the defence ministry, dismissed suggestions that poor medical care left many Afghan army and police feeling abandoned on the front lines.

“We are coping well with this situation of wounded soldiers, and have enough trained medical staff in every unit. Of course, we are trying to increase capacity,” he said.

“The decline in US helicopters has had an effect on transporting the wounded, but with the arrival of two C-130s (transport planes) we have been able to compensate to a good extent.”

A Nato spokesman said that the Afghan air force had transported 1,540 battlefield casualties last year — up from only 392 in 2012.

At the orthopaedic centre in Gulbahar, the long legacy of war is clear as Sergeant Ahmad learns to master his new leg alongside civilian victims of landmines and discarded ordinance.

Annifar is in to have her artificial leg adjusted, 27 years after she stepped on a Soviet-era mine.

Marzai, 24, tells of how she is now a Red Cross trainer after losing a leg 12 years ago when a leftover shell exploded in her village.

“I tell new amputees that they are not alone, that they can have a good, full life,” said Marzai.

For Sgt Ahmad, it is only the Red Cross rehabilitation programme and his family’s support that provide a ray of hope.

“I’d like to be useful, to work,” he said. “I have come here to find out whether that might be possible.”

Agence France-Presse