(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Two US soldiers have been killed and two were wounded in action during a raid on Taliban positions in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, the commander of the American task force in Afghanistan said in a statement.
The US troops came under fire while conducting a joint operation with Afghan forces to clear a Taliban position and disrupt the group’s operations in the Kunduz district, General John W. Nicholson, commander of US Forces in Afghanistan (USFOR-A), said on Thursday.
No other details regarding the operation were immediately available. The Pentagon has withheld the names of the soldiers due to “pending next-of-kin notification,” but said additional information would be released later.
Taliban militants have intensified their attacks in various parts of Afghanistan, including Kunduz probince. In October, Afghan troops fought to regain control of the city of Kunduz after Taliban fighters pushed into the center of the provincial capital that they had briefly captured last year.
In August, Stratfor, a US-based private intelligence agency, said in a report that Taliban fighters are now operating in more Afghan territories. They have made those territorial gains despite the efforts of the Afghan army and US troops to push forward in other provinces.
The United States -- under Republican George W. Bush’s presidency -- and its allies invaded Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban regime from power, but after about one and-a-half-decade, the foreign troops are still deployed to the country.
After becoming the president in 2008, President Barack Obama, a Democrat, vowed to end the Afghan war -- one of the longest conflicts in US history – but he failed to keep his promise.
Trump, who speaks against the Afghan war, has dubbed the 2001 invasion and following occupation of Afghanistan as "Obama's war".
Obama has ordered the military to take on the Taliban more directly and enable Afghan forces battling the militant group.
In October last year, Obama announced plans to keep 9,800 US troops in Afghanistan through 2016 and 5,500 in 2017, reneging on his promise to end the war there and bring home most American forces from the Asian country before he leaves office.
According to US officials, Washington would also maintain a large counterterrorism capability of terror drones and Special Operations Forces to fight militants in Afghanistan.
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source : RT
Thursday
3 November 2016
1:15:35 PM
789577
Two US soldiers have been killed and two were wounded in action during a raid on Taliban positions in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, the commander of the American task force in Afghanistan said in a statement.