KABUL — One of Afghanistan’s top generals, appointed by the country’s president to clean up corruption in war-torn Helmand province, has been arrested on sweeping corruption charges after little more than a year on the job, senior Afghan officials said Tuesday.
Major General M. Moein Faqir, the former commander of the 215th Corps of the Afghan National Army in Helmand province, was arrested Monday by the Afghan attorney general on charges that included misuse of food money meant to supply his soldiers, according to Lieutenant General Helaludin Helal, a deputy defense minister.
Faqir’s reported arrest was the latest in a long series of setbacks in efforts to fight official corruption in Helmand, Afghanistan’s most violent province, where Taliban insurgents now dominate 12 of 14 districts. He was appointed in December 2016 after a scandal involving “ghost soldiers,’’ in which up to 40 percent of the 215th Corps’ troops were said to exist only on paper so that corrupt senior officers could collect extra pay.
Further illustrating the difficulty of bringing Afghan officials to account for their actions, Faqir, reached by telephone on Tuesday, denied that he had been arrested, although he confirmed that there were corruption charges against him.
“I am home,’’ he said. “What the government is saying are all allegations. If they prove them, I am ready to be hanged.’’
Faqir also said he had been fired “about five to six months ago.’’ His dismissal had long been rumored but not previously confirmed publicly.
The 215th Corps, with an authorized strength of 18,000 soldiers, is one of the army’s six combat corps and the one that has seen by far the heaviest fighting in recent years, as the Taliban have gone from controlling two of Helmand’s districts to dominating a dozen of them. Helmand is also the center of the opium poppy trade and the producer of most of Afghanistan’s heroin, which has been a major factor contributing to corruption.
Also under investigation is the former provincial police chief in Helmand, Abdul Rahman Sarjang, who was appointed as a reformer by President Ashraf Ghani and then fired by him last year, allegedly for selling the posts of district chiefs of police in the province.
Major General Dawlat Waziri, the spokesman for the Defense Ministry, insisted that Faqir had been arrested.
“His corruption case was in process in the attorney general’s office, and yesterday he was present there for investigation and then he was arrested,’’ Waziri said.
Helal said the specific charges against Faqir included misuse of supplies and soldiers’ food, neglect of duty, and lack of transparency in the use of fuel, food, and other supplies. The theft of fuel intended for army vehicles has long been a concern of the US authorities and the subject of investigations by the special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction. Most Afghan military expenditures are paid for by the US government.
Theft of money meant to buy food for soldiers has also been a common problem, extending even into the main military hospital, where in 2011 some soldier patients reportedly starved to death.
The US military has been concerned enough about the deteriorating situation in Helmand that in the past two years it has sent reinforcements to the province, both as trainers to help build up the 215th Corps and as special operations troops to supplement Afghan military operations. An additional 300 US Marines are due in Helmand this spring, the first such deployment there since 2014.
In an interview in March 2016, Faqir boasted that not only did he clean up corruption in the 215th Corps after he took over in late 2015, but that he also brought greater government control to the province — claims that were soon contradicted by events on the ground.
“I have brought about reform in this camp,’’ he said. “There are no ghost soldiers in this corps now.’’
At the time, the general had seemed particularly concerned about bringing in flowers by helicopter to beautify his headquarters.
Some of his officers said that fighting had died down for a while because Faqir seemed uninterested in fighting the Taliban. Some local officials were scathing.
“Whether a police chief or a corps commander, they’re only here to fill their empty pockets,’’ said Mullah Majid Akhonzada, the deputy chairman of the Helmand provincial council, referring to Faqir and Sarjang.
Jamshid Rasuli, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s attorney general, denied that the accused general was sitting at home.
“General Faqir is under detention, he was arrested yesterday,’’ he said. “I cannot say his location for security reasons, but he is under the government’s detention.’’
A spokesman for Ghani declined to comment on the charges against Faqir and Sarjang. “We don’t have any reaction, as both generals are under investigation,’’ said the spokesman, Shah Hussain Murtazawi.
The strategic district of Sangin in Helmand, where more British, American, and coalition soldiers have died than in any other place in Afghanistan, fell last week to the Taliban. Waziri, however, insisted that it had not fallen, and that officials had simply moved the district center to protect the civilian population.
