US increased airstrikes on Taliban in final efforts to prevent Afghan army's fall: Reports

United States' airstrikes against the Taliban grew in August, when the extremists were attempting to conquer the nation, to a level which was previously not seen in nearly a year. According to data disclosed on Friday, the US ramped up its attacks on the extremists as part of a failed attempt to prevent the Afghan army’s fall to the Taliban. A report by National Thailand stated that until Friday, the US Air Force had not released such a report for nearly two years.

However, the data reportedly does not include the strikes which were launched by the Afghan Air Force which had carried out its own routine bombing until the disbanding along with the central government. But, the number of US airstrikes still uncover the efforts that America took to stabilize the war-ravaged nation especially when the situation on the ground became increasingly dependent on US-trained Afghan forces being toppled by the Taliban.

Trump administration suspended publication of reports

It is pertinent to mention that for several years when the US army was present in Afghanistan, it released “airpower summaries” every month to demonstrate the transparency to American taxpayers, congressional committees as well as US allies. However, the publication was suspended after the former US President Donald Trump administration penned a deal with the Taliban in February 2020 which included the promise to completely withdraw American forces by 2021 in exchange for a few concessions such as militants to stop attacking US troops.

US officials, as per the report, said that American forces in Afghanistan would retain the ability to defend themselves but they still carried out continued limited airstrikes in support of their Afghan allies. Before the publication of the report, Pentagon’s spokesperson John Kirby on Friday said that Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin directed that the data be released again to restore the transparency. 

The withheld monthly reports date back to February 2020, he said. Pentagon spokesperson also said that there have been no US military airstrikes in Afghanistan since the withdrawal was completed on August 30. Kirby even said that the US Department of Defence will continue to provide airpower summaries with the publication by Air Forces Central Command that is responsible for overseeing the operations in the region.

(IMAGE: AP)