Young Afghan general takes fight against Taliban to social media

Sami Sadat, 36, is leading the defence of Lashkar Gah and winning support online

Sami Sadat, commander of the 215 Maiwand Afghan Army Corps, talks on the radio in Helmand province. AFP Photo / Public Relation Office of 215 Maiwand corps

As a string of Taliban victories show Afghan government forces in disarray, a young general is advancing his reputation on the battlefield and on social media.

Provincial cities in the north have fallen like dominoes in recent days – in some cases after government forces retreated or surrendered without a fight – but in Lashkar Gah, a Taliban heartland, the army appears to be providing stiffer resistance.

Leading them is Sami Sadat, 36, the highest-ranking army officer in southern Afghanistan, in an intense fight in defence of a provincial capital the Taliban are desperate to seize.

And as the insurgents flood social media with images of surrendering Afghan soldiers and snap selfies with locals, the young general is using Twitter and Facebook as a slick PR tool in the fight against the Taliban.

He and the 20,000 men under his command in the 215th Corps have garnered thousands of followers with their Twitter accounts awash with images of the general among the troops, posing for selfies with young civilians, and meeting local shopkeepers.

On Wednesday the defence ministry announced on Twitter that he had been promoted to lead the country's special forces, an announcement widely applauded on the platform.

Gen Sadat remains optimistic despite the Taliban's advances.

"Because I know we are going to win," he told AFP in a phone interview from the frontlines of Lashkar Gah.

"I know this is our country, that the Taliban are failing, that they will fail sooner or later."

Confidence and ruthlessness

But there is more to Gen Sadat than meets the eye, according to fellow officers and friends.

"He is anything but naive," said a security official who asked not to be named.

A graduate of the prestigious King's College in London, Gen Sadat began his military career at the Afghan interior ministry.

He received military training in Germany, Britain, Poland and the United States, and also served in the National Directorate of Security – Afghanistan's spy agency.

"He has a very strategic vision and a very deep analysis of what is happening," said a general who was Gen Sadat's colleague at the spy agency.

Gen Sadat prefers to talk about his men rather than himself and family – senior officers and their relatives are particular targets for Taliban hit squads – and declines even to say where he was born.

But he is keen to talk about the war, which he does confidently – and ruthlessly.

"Any Taliban who comes to Lashkar Gah will die or leave disabled for life," he told AFP.

Still, he admits it will take time to fully secure the city.

'He will do anything for his soldiers'

On August 4, Gen Sadat called on residents to leave Lashkar Gah so the military could launch an all-out counter-offensive.

But he has still held back, saying he is fearful of hurting those who chose to stay behind.

Gen Sadat described how his forces were going house to house to secure neighbourhoods that the Taliban had infiltrated in Lashkar Gah.

"We still find civilians – especially the elderly and trapped women – who we take to safer places," he said.

NGOs and the United Nations have repeatedly expressed concern about the violence and the risks incurred by civilians – threats that include aerial bombardment of suspected Taliban positions in Lashkar Gah by the Afghan military.

The loyalty and respect Gen Sadat appears to command among his troops are a key factor in the resistance to the Taliban in the city, despite their morale-damaging advances elsewhere in Afghanistan.

"He is not someone who gives orders from the rear while hiding in the Humvee," an Afghan security source said. "He will do anything for his soldiers".