The Afghan military airlifted ISIS captives out rather than re-supply a besieged base - and the Taliban overran it

Reuters

An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier keeps watch at a checkpoint on the Ghazni highway, in Maidan Shar, the capital of Wardak province, Afghanistan August 12, 2018.

• The Afghan Army prioritized transporting captured ISIS fighters to Kabul over re-supplying one of its bases in the northern Faryab province that the Taliban had been besieging for weeks.
• The remote outpost called Chinese Camp folded to the Taliban on Monday after dozens of Afghan security forces were killed. 
• Spokespersons for Afghan Defense Ministry, Operation Resolute Support and the Pentagon didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

The Afghan Army prioritized transporting captured ISIS fighters to Kabul over re-supplying one of its bases in the northern Faryab province that the Taliban had been besieging for weeks, according to a New York Times report. 

The Taliban overran the base on Monday.  -

Despite peace talks planned for September with the US State Department, the Taliban has racked up a string of victories in August against ISIS and the Afghan military.

In early August, more than 200 ISIS fighters surrendered to the Afghan government after suffering a brutal defeat to the Taliban in the northern Jawzjan province. 

Associated Press

A foreign Islamic State group fighter, second right, speaks to a journalist after he surrendered to government security forces in the Darzab district of Jawzjan province, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018.

Then last week, the Taliban launched several assaults on cities and Afghan military bases across multiple provinces. The most deadly assault was launched on the strategic city of Ghazni, about 50 miles from Kabul, where more than 100 Afghan security forces were killed along with at least 20 civilians. 

Despite contradictory reports from the ground and US and Afghan authorities over the weekend, the fighting in Ghazni appears by Wednesday to have been quelled, with Operation Resolute Support saying on Tuesday that US aircraft had killed more than 200 Taliban fighters from the air. 

But there was no help for the approximately 100 Afghan soldiers and border officers at a remote base in the northern Faryab province called Chinese Camp, which about 1,000 Taliban fighters had been attacking for three weeks before mounting heavier attacks in concert with the other assaults it launched across the country last week, the Times previously reported. 

Chinese Camp, located in the Ghormach District of the province, had only about 100 soldiers. 

"Since 20 days we are asking for help and no one is listening," one Afghan officer at Chinese Camp, Capt. Sayid Azam, told the Times last week over the phone. "Every night fighting, every night the enemy are attacking us from three sides with rockets. We don't know what to do."

Azam was killed on Sunday, the Times reported. 

Before his death, Azam was apparently irate over the Afghan Army's decision to use three helicopters to transport the ISIS captives from Jawzjan province to Kabul instead of re-supplying his base, the Times reported.

Azam said that one Army helicopter brought Chinese Camp "three sacks of rice" on Aug. 3, one day after the ISIS captives were taken to Kabul. 

"Can you imagine? For 100 men?" he added. 

Afghan politicians had also been taking military helicopters for their own use instead of re-supplying Chinese Camp, which angered Azam as well, the Times reported.

The Times reported that it was difficult to glean if the ISIS captives were being treated as "Prisoners or Honored Guests of the Afghan Government."

"We lost everything to Daesh, and now the government sends helicopters for them from Kabul and brings them here and gives them rice and meat and mineral water, and provides them with security, and we are not even able to find food," a resident of Jawzjan province, Abdul Hamid, told the Times in early August. 

Chinese Camp finally folded to the Taliban on Monday, after dozens of Afghan soldiers and border officers were killed and several more surrendered to the Taliban.

The Afghan Defense Ministry, Resolute Support and Pentagon didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.