Wed 28 July 2021:
The US has increased airstrikes on Taliban targets in Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon, in order to support Afghan government forces fighting a broad offensive.
Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Jon Quinlan confirmed in an email exchange with Anadolu Agency that “a number of strikes have occurred over the last several days from both manned and unmanned strike platforms.”
The remarks follow US Central Command Commander Frank McKenzie saying on Sunday that airstrikes in support of Afghan government forces would continue ahead of the US withdrawal, adding the US is “prepared to continue this heightened level of support in the coming weeks if the Taliban continue their attacks.”
The full exit of US forces from Afghanistan ordered by President Joe Biden is expected to be completed by the end of August, bringing an end to the US’s longest war, which is now in its 20th year.
Night Curfew
Afghanistan’s government has imposed a night-time curfew across almost all of the country’s 34 provinces to stem surging violence unleashed by a sweeping Taliban offensive that has seen the armed group make rapid territorial gains.
“To curb violence and limit the Taliban movements, a night curfew has been imposed in 31 provinces across the country,” except in Kabul, Panjshir and Nangarhar, the interior ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Violence has risen in Afghanistan since the announcement that all US and NATO forces are set to withdraw from the country this summer.
Intense fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban continues amid a widespread Taliban offensive on government-held territory.
With no respite in the fighting, the Afghan government on Monday claimed that it had taken back a key northern district from the Taliban.
The Taliban, on the other hand, claimed to have inflicted “heavy losses” on Afghan soldiers in Kaldar, which borders Uzbekistan.
“During the firefight, six troops were killed and 12 others were wounded,” claimed Zabihullah Mujahed, the group’s spokesman.
No peace till Ghani’s removal from power
Meanwhile, the Taliban insists there will not be peace in the country until there is a new negotiated government in Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani is removed from power.
“I want to make it clear that we do not believe in the monopoly of power because any governments who [sought] to monopolise power in Afghanistan in the past, were not successful governments,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told The Associated Press news agency, apparently including the Taliban’s own five-year rule in that assessment.
“So we do not want to repeat that same formula,” he added.
Ghani has often said he will remain in office until new elections can determine the next government.
The Taliban has swiftly captured territory since early May and seized strategic border crossings, as the last United States and NATO soldiers leave Afghanistan.
The US-NATO withdrawal is more than 95 percent complete and is due to be finished in weeks.
Last Wednesday, top US military officer General Mark Milley told a Pentagon news conference the Taliban had “strategic momentum” and was in control of about half the countryside as it drove to cut off population centres from the Western-backed government in Kabul.
The group’s fighters are threatening a number of the 34 provincial capitals but have yet to wrestle control of any of them.
