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Top US commander understates recent battlefield successes by Taliban

Wednesday, 23 June 2021 11:30 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 23 June 2021 11:30 PM ]

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley has downplayed the recent battlefield gains by the Taliban in Afghanistan, reiterating that it has nothing to do with the US withdrawal from the country.

“There's 81 district centers that are currently, we think, are underneath Taliban control. That's out of 419 district centers,” Milley told the House Armed Services Committee.

There is no provincial capital that is underneath Taliban control, he added.

“It is true that the Taliban are sniping at and picking off outposts, etc., and they have seized some district centers,” Milley continued. “Sixty percent of the 81 were seized last year, and the others since the last two months or so. So yes, we're concerned, we're watching it, but there's a 300,000, plus or minus, military force, Afghanistan army and police force, and it is their job to defend their country.”

Over the past weeks, the Taliban militant group has taken the control of Afghanistan’s main border crossing with neighboring Tajikistan, amid a surge in fighting between government forces and the militants in the northern parts of the country.

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Since early May, the Taliban militant group has been launching major offensives against Afghan government forces and civilians across the country, and claims to have seized at least 87 of the country’s 421 districts.

On Monday, the Afghan government forces retook the two districts of Bangi and Khwaja Ghar in the northern Takhar Province from Taliban militants.

The militant group’s advances come as US and other NATO troops prepare to leave Afghanistan after two decades of war and occupation.

US President Joe Biden announced in April that all American troops would withdraw from Afghanistan by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that Washington used as a pretext to invade and occupy the country despite the fact that no Afghan national was involved in the attacks.

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