ISAF

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ISAF – INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ASSISTANCE FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN

On 20 December 2001, the UN Security Council adopted the Resolution 1386 and the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) were officially founded.

The preliminary goals were defined in January 2002, when the Military technical Agreement between the Interim Administration of Afghanistan and the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) was signed.

The primary goals of this mission were:

• to help maintain basic security, first of all in the region of Kabul and its surroundings;
• to assist the Afghan Interim Administration in establishing national security structures (institutions);
• to support the reconstruction of the country;
• to aid in enabling and training the new Afghan national security forces (Afghan National Police and Afghan National Army).

On 11 August 2003, at the request of the UN (with the resolution of the SC 1510) and with approval of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the ISAF Command was taken over by NATO.   By October 2006, ISAF spread across the entire territory of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, in four stages, and established regional commands „Capital“ „North“, „South“, „East“ and „West“.

The latter redefined goals and responsibilities of  ISAF in the period from 2006 to 2011 included: helping  the Government of Afghanistan in establishing security and stability across the entire territory, supporting the reconstruction and development, assisting the establishment of structures of the rule of law and promoting an environment in which the rule of law can be fostered, and helping in the fight against drug trafficking as well.

 

Participation of the Army of  the Republic of North Macedonia in ISAF

Starting with the strategic commitment to becoming a NATO member with a political consensus of all the political entities in the country, as well as the overall Macedonian public, the Parliament of the Republic of North Macedonia approved the participation of two staff officers in the ISAF mission in August 2020, thus confirming its political will and ability to contribute to the international security.

During this mission the servicemen of the Army of the republic of North Macedonia, the servicemen  carried out different tasks at different posts: security detail of the Mission command, staff personnel, medical personnel, as well as teams of mentors for training on several locations across Afghanistan, such as: Kabul, Maymana, Mazar-i-Sharif.

 

• two rotations of two staff officers in 2002/2003;

The participation in ISAF started with sending staff officers within the Turkish contingent. We participated twice, with two rotations, both three months long, with two officers, from August 2002 to February 2003.

 

• three contingents with infantry section size in 2003/2004;

The first contingent of 10 servicemen started the mission in Afghanistan in February 2003 and it was accommodated and appointed in the “Warehouse”. Captain Bajrami Feto was the first commander of the contingent.

 

• five contingents with infantry platoon size 2005/2007;

 

• seventeen contingents with mechanized infantry company size from 2006 to December 2014;

The first rotation of the Macedonian contingent (13.06.2006) of 90 servicemen  with the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Macedonia and the Ministry of defense of the United Kingdom was directly subordinate to the Combat group “East” CG (E). The British  Company for force protection that carried out the same tasks as the company of the Macedonian contingent was within this combat group. In the following rotations, the mission of the company, starting from July 2007 (with 126 up to 152 ARM servicemen),

 

• one additional contingent within the task forces  “Phoenix” two platoons size in 2010 ;

The Macedonian contingent within the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Vermont National  Guard – the USA, carried out operations within the zone of responsibility. During this mission, 79 servicemen of the Special Operations Regiment I the Military police Battalion, together with their colleagues, the servicemen of the Vermont National Guard, the USA, and the US Army, during a nine-month period carried out missions in the field of training and mentoring the Afghan National Army and Police and together with the coalition forces and  the USA supported the Afghan National Army and Police.

 

• Operational teams for mentoring and liaisons (Operational Mentor and Liaison Team – OMLT) within

four OMLT-1 with two servicemen from 2008 to January 2011;  three OMLT-2 with three servicemen from 2009 to January 2011;  four OMLT-3 with five servicemen from January 2011 to January 2013.

During their engagement from 2008 till the end of the ISAF mission our servicemen in the OML teams carried out tasks related to mentoring suitable staff sections of the Afghan Army at brigade level in the 3^rd Brigade – 209^th Corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA) in Mazar-i-Sharif, regional command “North”.

 

• Medical teams of ARM within ISAF

From August 2005, within the Greek field hospital, and later from March 2007 to July 2009, within the Czech field hospital, ARM participated in ISAF with a Medical team that was part of the Combined Medical team of the countries form the Adriatic Charter – A3. Medical personnel from the then Army Health Service – Skopje and the platoons for medical support within the Logistic Support Command (LSBde) were included in the A3-Medical team.

During this mission, the medical team within the USA – Adriatic Charter A3, functioned as a team of twelve representatives, four representatives from each country, Republic of Albania, Republic of Croatia and Republic of Macedonia.

Based on the Agreement for bilateral cooperation with the Kingdom of Norway we provided a surgical team for the field hospital of the Kingdom of Norway located in the city of Maymana – Faryab Province in northwestern Afghanistan. According to the agreement, within a period of 3 years our country sent seven rotations, each for a period of six months. The security mission for Level 2 – medical protection started on 1.12.2008, and finished in May 2012.

 

• Staff Officers in ISAF

From the beginning of 2008 to December, 2014.  The headquarters of the coalition forces in Kabul was within the following sections: Informative Coordination Section, J-9 Section – Civil-Military cooperation, psychological operations, J-3 officer for engineering parks and training, military police officer who carried out tasks at the airport in Kabul – (КAIA).

In the period from 2011 to December, the priority of ISAF was to increase the capacities and capabilities of the Afghan national security forces, by gradually transferring the responsibility for security from ISAF to the Afghan forces.

The mission of the international security forces in support of Afghanistan ISAF officially ended at the end of 2014.

The lessons learned in ISAF, that are greatly applied in the training of the servicemen of our Army, as well as the extensive experience are of immense value. The legitimacy, recognition and confirmation as a confident, reliable and above all, equal member of NATO and other partners, were acquired by demonstrating high level of professionalism and dedication to the mission.