WASHINGTON, July 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Afghan authorities vowed to retake all the districts lost to the Taliban as the pullout of US forces from the country neared completion.
Hundreds of commandos were deployed to counter the insurgents’ blistering offensive in the north, a day after more than 1,000 government troops fled into neighbouring Tajikistan.
The US Central Command announced that the American withdrawal from the country, ordered in April by President Joe Biden, was now more than 90 per cent completed, underscoring that Afghan forces were increasingly on their own in the battle with the hardline Taliban.
Fighting has raged across several provinces, but the insurgents have primarily focused on a devastating campaign across the northern countryside, seizing dozens of districts in the past two months.
“There is war, there is pressure. Sometimes things are working our way. Sometimes they don’t, but we will continue to defend the Afghan people,” National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib told reporters.
“We have plans to retake the districts,” he added.
The Pentagon said on Tuesday they were well on track to completing their pullout of thousands of American forces and civilian contractors by the end of August, just days after turning over the last and largest of seven US bases, Bagram air base north of Kabul, to the Afghan government.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby underscored that the US and NATO coalition partners would continue to support Afghan security forces in the fight with the Taliban, even if there were no coalition troops on the ground.
“We still have the authority to assist the Afghans in the field if they need it,” Kirby said, specifying the possibility of air strikes.
He also said negotiations were underway to ensure that US civilian technicians, who have been essential to keeping Afghan air force aircraft flying, would be able to stay.
But he underscored that US forces were leaving by August.
“We have spent a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of resources in improving the competency and the capability of the Afghan national security forces, and now it’s their turn, it’s their time, to defend their people.” — NNN-AGENCIES
