WASHINGTON, July 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US military in the past few days conducted airstrikes in Afghanistan to support Afghan security forces, the Pentagon said.
According to media reports, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said that “in the last several days, we have acted, through airstrikes, to support the ANDSF (Afghan National Defense and Security Forces),” without providing details.
A defense official said that the U.S. military conducted more than four airstrikes supporting Afghan forces on Wednesday and Thursday.
At least two of the strikes targeting military equipment that the Taliban had taken from the Afghan forces, and others targeting Taliban fighting positions, including at least one strike in the southern province of Kandahar, said the report.
These airstrikes came as the security situation in the war-torn country deteriorated and the U.S. drawdown was almost completed.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a press briefing on Wednesday that about half of the 419 district centers in Afghanistan are under Taliban control.
“A significant amount of territory has been seized over the course of six, eight, ten months by the Taliban … strategic momentum appears to be sort of with the Taliban,” Milley said.
President Joe Biden had ordered the U.S. military to end its mission in Afghanistan by Aug 31, days ahead of his original Sept 11 deadline. U.S. Central Command said last week over 95 percent of the withdrawal had been completed.
A spokesman for the Taliban claimed Thursday they controlled 90 percent of Afghanistan’s borders, following offensives carried out by the hardline Islamist group as foreign forces withdraw.
“Afghanistan’s borders with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Iran, or about 90 percent of the border, are under our control,” Zabihullah Mujahid told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency, a claim that could not be independently verified.
The militants are pushing across Afghanistan, snapping up territory, seizing border crossings and encircling cities, with the withdrawal of US and NATO troops all but complete.
The resurgent militants now control about half of Afghanistan’s roughly 400 districts. — NNN-AGENCIES
