KABUL: American forces conducted two airstrikes on Taliban fighters to foil the militant group’s plan to launch attacks on Afghan security forces, a U.S. military spokesman said on Friday, in a move that could hurt the peace process.
The airstrikes, conducted in two different provinces, were the first since the start of the Eid ceasefire declared by the Taliban and Afghan forces last month.
Sonny Leggett, a U.S. military spokesman based in Afghanistan, said in a tweet that an airstrike was carried out against 25 armed Taliban fighters executing a coordinated attack on an Afghan force checkpoint in Farah province in the west. He said a second attack was conducted in Kandahar in the south.
He did not give casualty figures, and a Taliban spokesman refused to comment on the airstrikes, which were conducted at a time when the United States is steadily pulling its troops out of Afghanistan.
U.S. President Donald Trump in recent weeks has restated his desire for a full military withdrawal from Afghanistan but has not set a target date, amid speculation he might make ending America’s longest war part of his re-election campaign.
But Afghan security officials and European diplomats said the fighting had yet to ebb despite all parties working towards finding a political settlement to end the Afghan war.
At least 10 Afghan security forces members were killed on Friday morning in an ambush by the Taliban in southern Zabul province, Afghan officials said.
The Taliban has not claimed responsibility for the attack.
Sixteen Taliban militants were killed and five others wounded after Afghan Air Force conducted an airstrike in the western Farah province before dawn, provincial police spokesman confirmed.
“The targeted militants tried to storm security checkpoints before being targeted in Dehak village, on outskirts of provincial capital Farah city at early hours of Friday.
The intelligence report provided by the local military authorities found security forces or civilian did not harmed in the sortie,” spokesman Muhibullah Muhib told Xinhua.
A Taliban divisional commander named Raz Mohammad was among the killed, according to the police official.
The desert province has been the scene of heavy clashes for long years. The Afghan security forces had repelled massive Taliban attacks two times and the militants failed to overrun Farah city during the past three years.
The Taliban militants have not responded to the report so far.
Violence still lingered in the war-torn country after a peace deal was signed between the United States and Taliban in Qatar late in February, which paved the way for a phased U.S. force withdrawal.–Agencies
