KABUL (Dispatches) – The U.S.’s top general in Afghanistan on Tuesday gave a sobering assessment of the country’s deteriorating security situation as America is ending its occupation of the country after the “forever war,” which was meant to bring security to the country.
Gen. Austin S. Miller said the rapid loss of districts around the country to the Taliban — several with significant strategic value — is worrisome. He also cautioned that the militants deployed to help the beleaguered national security forces could lead the country into war.
Miller made the remarks to a small group of reporters in the Afghan capital.
“It is a political settlement that brings peace to Afghanistan. And it’s not just the last 20 years. It’s really the last 42 years,” he said.
The U.S. military led a massive invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 in what it proclaimed was a war on terror and meant to eradicate the Taliban. But twenty years on, however, terrorism continues to be the mainstay in the country.
On Monday, Taliban militants took over a district, launched attacks on checkpoints and cemented control over a border trade crossing, officials said, as clashes intensify in Afghanistan’s central and northern provinces.
Violence has risen sharply around the country as talks in Qatar have failed to make significant progress.
The Taliban have launched a wave of offensives around the country, particularly in the north, outside of their southern strongholds.
In central Bamiyan province, normally relatively free of conflict, Taliban fighters attacked several security checkpoints, resulting in heavy clashes overnight, according to Humayoon Elkhani, spokesman for Bamiyan’s provincial police.
In central Ghazni province, Muqur district fell to the Taliban after months of being under siege, according to a member of the provincial council and a security source. A health center in the district was bombed on Monday morning, according to provincial health director Zaher Shah Nekmal, injuring five health workers.
In northern Badakhshan province, the Taliban launched coordinated attacks on five districts overnight but were fought back by Afghan security forces, according to a spokesperson for the provincial government.