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- The United States recently carried out several airstrikes against the Taliban in support of Afghan forces.
- The strikes targeted enemy personnel, as well as captured military equipment.
- The United States is withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan, where it has been waging war for nearly two decades.
The US military has carried out multiple airstrikes against the Taliban this week, in part to destroy military equipment they have captured from Afghan security forces.
“In recent days, we have acted, with air strikes, to support the ANDSF [Afghan national defense and security forces]Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Thursday, declining to give details, the AP reported.
Over the past month, the United States has carried out about half a dozen airstrikes across Afghanistan, the majority of which are carried out by drones. Some of the strikes targeted “captured military equipment that the Taliban [were] able to seize the ANDSF, ”Voice of America reported, citing a US defense official.
Three of the last four strikes were actually aimed at destroying military materiel, CNN reported, noting that it was American materiel that had been transferred to Afghan security forces. The PA reported that the equipment included a vehicle and artillery.
In addition to military equipment, recent airstrikes have also targeted enemy forces, according to several reports.
The news of the strikes comes as the United States continues to withdraw from the war in Afghanistan, a war that has lasted nearly two decades, making it the longest standing American conflict.
The US Central Command, which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, said on Tuesday that the US had “completed more than 95% of the entire withdrawal process.”
As the United States withdraws its forces, the Taliban have continued to engage Afghan forces, which have at times struggled to repel the insurgents.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said on Wednesday that the Taliban currently controls about half of Afghanistan’s 419 districts, but none of the 34 provincial capitals, although they are stepping up pressure in those provinces. areas.
He acknowledged that the strategic momentum currently appears to be with the Taliban, but argued that he “doesn’t think the end of the game is written yet.”
As the United States continues to support Afghan forces, Milley said “the future of Afghanistan is squarely in the hands of the Afghan people.”
Milley added that the Afghan forces have the capacity and the capacity to defend themselves, stressing that “a negative result – a takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban – is not won in advance”.
The withdrawal of US forces was negotiated under the Trump administration but confirmed by the new Biden administration, which argued that the US military has achieved its primary objectives but cannot be responsible for the security of Afghanistan indefinitely.
President Joe Biden said earlier this month that “after 20 years – a trillion dollars spent training and equipping hundreds of thousands of Afghan national security and defense forces, 2,448 Americans killed, 20,722 more injured and thousands returning home with invisible mental trauma. health – I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan without a reasonable hope of achieving a different result. “
The United States is currently in the process of evacuating the Afghans who supported the American war effort, which is expected to officially end in late August.
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