Violence Flares Up in Afghanistan as U.S. Misses Pullout Deadline

Date: 05 May 2021 - 20:31

News ID: ۸۹۹۰۵

KABUL (Dispatches) – Afghan government forces carried out an airstrike on a Taliban convoy in the northern Faryab province, reportedly killing 10 militants, including senior members of the movement, the defense ministry said in a statement to Sputnik.
According to the ministry, a large Taliban convoy was on its way to the Qaysar from Chehel Gazi village when it came under attack.
The ministry specified that the strike thwarted an attack that the convoy plotted in the Qaysar district of Faryab province.
The airstrike also injured 16 Taliban militants. The wounded and dead reportedly include senior Taliban members and commanders, the ministry stated.
Violence flared up in the country ahead of the Taliban’s May 1 deadline for U.S. and allied troops to complete their pullout. Tolo News estimates that 226 Afghan civilians and military personnel have been killed in the attacks as the U.S. did not comply with the deadline. U.S. President Joe Biden has announced that the American troops will withdraw by September 11.
The Taliban have blamed Washington for "shamefully” breaching its agreement with the group on the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan, threatening to drive out U.S. troops from the country by force.
"The U.S. shamefully breached‎ the agreement on troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Americans have failed to adhere to their commitments,” Taliban spokesman Mohammed Naeem Wardak told Press TV on April 15.
The spokesman warned that the U.S. troops would be "thrown out of the country”.
The former U.S. top spy, who led the U.S. and allied forces in the region for years, has warned that America’s longest war in Afghanistan is not going to end despite the September 11 pullout.
In an interview with France 24 on Tuesday, Gen. David Petraeus said Biden’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from the war-torn country by September will neither end the war nor stop American meddling in the country.
"This is not going to end the endless war in Afghanistan,” he said, claiming that the military exit would only end American "involvement in that war militarily.”