AhlulBayt News Agency - The US forces in Afghanistan resumed airstrikes against Taliban insurgents under the new expanded authorities granted by President Barack Obama recently.
Earlier this month, president Obama approved border role for the US military to support the Afghan security forces in fight against Taliban militants.
Officials in Pentagon said that new airstrikes were carried out in the southern parts of Afghanistan following the approval of border role.
“The goal of the strikes, “would be a strategic effect on behalf of the Afghan force that we are enabling,” Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the other day. “Strikes hit their intended target.”
US officials are in believe that under the new policy the US commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, will be able to decide when it is appropriate for US forces to accompany conventional Afghan forces into the field.
On Saturday, the Taliban said it would strongly retaliate for the resumption of US airstrikes and rejected assertions that bombing operations were ever suspended.
The US and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed Taliban from power, but militancy is still rife across the country.
Afghanistan, parts of which have long been considered a bastion of Taliban, has recently been seeing the emergence and expansion of Daesh (ISIL) terrorists. Nangarhar, in particular, is one area where Daesh has visibly gained a foothold.
The CIA spy agency also regularly uses drones for airstrikes and spying missions in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt near the Afghan border.
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