Afghanistan: The United States attacks the Taliban and seizes equipment to support Afghan forces

[ad_1]

The military retained the authority to carry out strikes in support of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces during the final stages of the withdrawal of US forces, but the pace of such strikes has subsided in recent weeks. According to a defense official, the US military has carried out roughly six or seven strikes in the past 30 days, mostly using drones to launch the strikes. Another defense official said the United States had previously launched strikes in support of Afghan forces on a more frequent basis.

“I can say that in the past few days, we’ve acted through the air strikes in support of the Afghan National Defense Forces, but I won’t go into the technical details of those strikes,” Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said at a Thursday briefing.

Three of the last four strikes targeted captured equipment, an official said. This includes US equipment transferred to ANDSF which was then captured by the Taliban as they advanced across the country.

This latest development is indicative of the Taliban’s success in sweeping across the country, pushing the Afghan army back and seizing large swaths of territory as the United States neared the end of its withdrawal.

The US Central Command, which is responsible for Afghanistan, said recently that the US troop withdrawal is more than 95% complete. President Joe Biden said the withdrawal would be completed by the end of August. About 650 soldiers are scheduled to remain in the country to secure the US diplomatic presence in Afghanistan, including the embassy, ​​and to help secure Kabul International Airport, a necessary facility for the movement of diplomats.

On Wednesday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said the Taliban control roughly 212 or 213 of the country’s 419 districts. Milley said that although the Taliban had not captured any of the 34 provincial capitals, they had surrounded half of them in an effort to isolate major population centres.

“The strategic momentum is sort of with the Taliban,” Milley said. Milley said the Afghan army is strengthening its forces to protect the provincial capitals and Kabul. Milley added that the Eid holiday led to a lull in the fighting, but noted that the situation across the country would become clearer after the holiday.

“There is a possibility of complete Taliban control or the possibility of any number of other scenarios, collapse, warlords, all kinds of other scenarios out there. We are watching closely, and I don’t think the end game is over yet,” he said.

The air strikes come as the Biden administration prepares to evacuate the first group of tens of thousands of Afghan interpreters and their families applying for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) to move to the United States. Many fear for their lives from the Taliban because of their assistance to the US military presence in Afghanistan.

At least part of the first group of 2,500 Afghans who are in the final stages of their SIV applications will be housed in Ft. Kirby told me in Virginia earlier this week. The sources said that the transfer process may occur next week.

Earlier this month, the top US general in Afghanistan resigned as the military withdrawal drew to a close. General Austin Scott Miller transferred his command powers to General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, at a ceremony in Kabul two weeks ago. The devolution of command powers is a milestone in the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Miller, who has been the longest-serving US military commander for nearly two decades of US military involvement in Afghanistan, has repeatedly expressed concern about the pace of Taliban territorial gains and the potential for civil war in the country once the US military campaign is complete.

While handing over leadership responsibilities, Miller noted the escalation of violence caused by Taliban attacks and emphasized that this would not help in concluding a political agreement with the Afghan government.

“I am one of the American military officers who had the opportunity to speak with the Taliban,” Miller said. “And I told them… It is important that the military parties set the conditions for a peaceful and political settlement in Afghanistan. We can all see the violence happening across the country. But we know that with this violence, it is very difficult to achieve a political settlement.”

.

[ad_2]