Kabul Security Force (KSF) explained
Supporting the Afghans to maintain peace and security in the country’s capital, the KSF helped keep UK and NATO forces safe
Following the end of combat operations in 2014, British and NATO forces continued to commit significant resources to Afghanistan as part of NATO’s new ‘train, advise, assist’ mission. The codename for the British part of the mission was called Operation TORAL.
As part of this commitment in Afghanistan, the UK took a lead on the Kabul Security Force (KSF). In a nutshell, this involved coordinating the security procedures of the UK and NATO personnel contributing to the train, advise and assist mission in Kabul.
Making up the force was roughly 200 UK troops, alongside soldiers from countries including the US, Australia and Mongolia, from the contingent serving in Afghanistan. It’s important to note that the KSF was not providing security for Afghan civilians in Kabul, this was delivered by the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF).
yThe role of this force was conducting a force protection role and they were not involved in any combat missions against insurgents, unlike their previous mission in the region on Operation HERRICK from 2001 to 2014.
By leading the KSF the UK helped make Kabul safer for Coalition personnel showing our commitment to NATO.
The key tasks of the force included enhancing the security for NATO personnel within Kabul, Advisor Force Protection (AFP) throughout the City, coordinating NATO’s base protection measures, and providing support to NATO personnel endangered by security incidents within Kabul.
Delivering the AFP was vital for Afghanistan, it is where NATO advisors met with, supported, helped train, guided and partnered with Afghan forces. Their job was to make sure that they can deliver those missions safely.
Another major role as part of the KSF is the Quick Reaction Force (QRF). The QRF was an armed military unit that is able to rapidly respond to developing situations, in Kabul.
At any time, the QRF may get called so they were always on their toes, ready on standby. As soon as an incident occurred and was something that the British Army QRF could respond to, they started to prep their vehicle, a plan was then formulated on what was happening on the ground.
The Afghans hold the authority over the security and responding to incidents in the city, the British troops were there to provide assistance to them, from helping to extract casualties to providing additional security. Within the KSF, multiple nationalities held a QRF including the Danes, US, Germany to name a few.
The Prime Minister has announced that the majority of British forces have now withdrawn from Afghanistan. A small number will remain to provide diplomatic assurance, consistent with our continued diplomatic presence in Afghanistan.
