KABUL – Maj. Gen. James B. Hecker, commander of US air forces inAfghanistan, warned on Wednesday that stern action would have to be takenagainst Taliban militants if they did not cooperate in efforts to stabilizethe country and pursue peace.
He said that the group will face repercussions never before seen throughairstrikes if they fail to join the peace process.
In an interview with TOLOnews, Hecker said the forces under his commandwere not interested in killing the Taliban, but warned the group that USforces will not remain a spectator when it comes to the killing of innocentpeople by the Taliban.
“Well the short message (message to the Taliban is) to reconcile, that’swhat we are after, we don’t want to kill the Taliban, but we are not goingto sit idly by if the Taliban are killing innocent women and children; soif they don’t reconcile, then we will be forced to fight them and that’swhat we are doing right now. So the message to the Taliban is toreconcile,” said Hecker.
According to him, the US plans to shift its military equipment from Iraqand Syria to Afghanistan in a move to speed up efforts against theterrorist groups in Afghanistan.
Afghan officials have widely welcomed the transfer of US military equipmentto Afghanistan.
E-10 aircrafts have for example returned to the battlefields after sevenyears.
“We don’t want Afghanistan to be a safe haven for terrorists, that’s why weare here and help the Afghan air force, they are doing a great job. Theyare really building up their inventory by this UH-60 we have here. As weknow the Afghan forces are getting much more capable. So they are going toget more UH-60s and we bringing in more coalition aircraft ,” said Hecker.
In a question about civilian casualties sustained in battles, Hecker saidthe Afghan forces are doing their best to decrease the number of civiliandeaths.
“Afghan air forces are doing extremely well when it comes to civiliancasualties. I can tell you how many pilots and films that I watch of Afghanair force not dropping a bomb because there is a child, because there is afemale there and of course we are the same way and the coalition airforce,” he said.
This comes a day after the Afghanistan Air Force (AAF) took delivery ofanother four Black Hawk helicopters from the US forces on Tuesday atKandahar airport.
The new helicopters added to the four others handed over to AAF by the US afew months ago.
US forces are training Afghan pilots to fly the Black Hawks.
“Right now every class has six student pilots, in the first days, they gothrough qualification training to go to know the basic system of theaircraft and that is six weeks long; after that they go through an eightweek course in mission training and that will involve each student, andcrew member, to land outside of the wire in a different location,” saidAfghan trainer Colonel Almas.
According to US officials, the US forces dropped over 4,000 bombs onTaliban and Daesh facilities in Afghanistan in 2017.
The US has committed to providing 160 Black Hawk helicopters to Afghanistanin the next few years.