-Many provincial centres would have fallen to Taliban if US support was not here, reveals US Commander
Shares
KABUL - The US Forces Commander in Afghanistan General John Nicholson has revealed that US Forces in Afghanistan have saved many provincial centres to fall in the hands of the Afghan Taliban.
He visited the American troops base in Laghman on Thursday to assess security of the eastern parts of the country, TOLONEWS has reported.
Nicholson said the Afghan forces’ offensives, backed by US Air Force, have prevented the collapse of districts and provincial centers to the Taliban and other groups.
The US general said the Afghan security and defense forces with the support of the Resolute Support forces have inflicted heavy losses to the Taliban and other groups.
“The success of the Afghan operations around the country supported by Resolute Support and US forces have caused the enemy high casualties everywhere.
This has caused them to stop their attempts to seize provincial capitals, to stop trying to seize districts and instead return to these horrible suicide attacks, which target civilians, innocent civilians, with indiscriminate bombing in the cities,” Nicholson told TOLOnews.
Afghan Army Chief of Staff Gen. Sharif Yaftali said the recent airstrikes by Afghan and foreign forces have been ‘very effective’ and that the progress of these operations will soon bring a positive change on the battlegrounds.
“The recent (air) operations were very effective for suppressing the Taliban,” Yaftali told TOLOnews.
“You witnessed that the operations in Helmand and Badakhshan and other parts of the north (of Afghanistan) were very successful, and another good point of the operations was that they resulted in no civilian casualties.”
The foreign forces showed the heavy military equipment at the base and said they will use them to target terrorist strongholds.
“Our mission here is to “reign denial” and support operations of Resolute Support,” said Jonathan James, a US Army soldier in the east of Afghanistan. He said the reign denial is the night operations conducted at night in order to prevent civilian casualties.
This comes after a US Air Force B-52 bomber recently increased its strikes against insurgents in the north of the country after focused air raids in the south.
The latest airstrike of the US B-52 bomber targeted Taliban hideouts, their fighters and stolen Afghan National Army vehicles, according to US forces in Afghanistan.
The airstrike has reportedly targeted Taliban strongholds, training camps and drugs processing centers in bordering areas between Afghanistan’s Badakhshan with Tajikistan and China.
