US intensifies airstrikes in as Taliban near Kandahar

About a dozen strikes are aimed at slowing a Taliban surge, aiding a beleaguered Afghan military.

Kenneth McKenzie addresses the media in the US embassy compound in Kabul on Sunday. Picture: AFP

The US has stepped up airstrikes in southern Afghanistan amid growing apprehension over a Taliban offensive threatening Kandahar, the country’s second-largest city and spiritual capital of the Taliban movement.

The fall of Kandahar would deal a heavy blow to the US-backed government in Kabul, which is trying to impart calm to its citizens as the Taliban has seized swaths of the countryside, but so far failed to take a major city.

The airstrikes, about a dozen in recent days, point to a continuing role for the US military in Afghanistan, despite confidence expressed by President Joe Biden and the Pentagon that the Afghan armed forces are well-equipped and ready to fight the Taliban on their own. US forces are due to depart Afghanistan by the end of August.

Kandahar, population 600,000, was home to deceased Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and host to key military bases once maintained by the US. It is also a major economic prize.

The Taliban have advanced dozens of kilometres toward Kandahar city in recent weeks, squeezing it from three directions, capturing swaths of territory in the Panjwai and Arghandab valleys, places where foreign troops fought for decades to keep the Taliban at bay.

From the west, Taliban fighters now are within 3km of a base once used by the CIA to train Afghan special forces, who now occupy the facility, according to residents reached by telephone in Kandahar.

Residents said the Taliban push from the south threatens to cut off the main road between the city and Kandahar Air Field, a one-time bastion of US air power during the 20-year war. The US turned the base over to the Afghan National Army last month.

In an impromptu visit to Kabul, the top US military commander in charge of the Middle East and Afghanistan, General Frank McKenzie, met on Sunday with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his top security officials to discuss Afghanistan’s defence plans and to reassure them of US support.

General McKenzie told reporters after the meeting that the US had increased the number of airstrikes against the Taliban in the past few days, and was prepared to continue if the Taliban offensive continues.

He called the battle for Kandahar “a tough fight” and said the city was critical for both sides. “I think the issue is still in doubt, but Kandahar has not fallen,” he said.

The US military has sought to dial back on strikes against the Taliban before the August 31. After that, White House officials have said they would retain the right to strike al-Qa’ida or other groups only if they pose a threat to the US.

But with a Taliban offensive throughout the country, US officials said they expect to hit more targets in Afghanistan after the end of the nearly weeklong Muslim holiday of Eid.

As Eid ended last week, the Taliban intensified attacks on several cities around the country, but fighting has been most intense in Kandahar, where fighters broke through a defensive perimeter of the city.

American officials have been mum on details of the airstrikes, only saying that the US conducted more than a dozen strikes across Afghanistan, including about 10 in the five days to Sunday. The strikes occurred in Helmand, according to US officials and in the neighbouring province of Kandahar, according to other officials. The targets have included Taliban artillery and vehicles stolen from Afghan forces, and in one case an AC-130 Hercules gunship was used to stop an attack on an Afghan army unit, officials said.

Fighting continued through most of the weekend in Kandahar city, residents said, with machinegun fire and explosions echoing through the streets. Residents said there was one airstrike on Sunday inside the city, but it wasn’t clear whether it came from US or Afghan aircraft.

“If this continues with fighting in so many parts of the city, I am afraid the Taliban will take Kandahar,” said Syed Mohammad, a shopkeeper reached by phone in Kandahar, who said he tried to help evacuate relatives from a district hit by fighting, but was sent home by Taliban who had set up a roadblock.

Afghans fear that a capture of Kandahar will presage a wave of atrocities and revenge killings seen in the aftermath of other Taliban victories.

The Taliban offensive in southern Afghanistan got a boost earlier this month with their seizure of the Spin Boldak, a bustling trade city on the border with Pakistan. Since then, officials in Kabul say that thousands of Taliban have crossed the border from Pakistan to join in the attack. Grisly videos have surfaced on social media showing Taliban executing locals suspected of co-operating with the government.

The global human-rights group Human Rights Watch said Friday the Taliban had rounded up hundreds of residents of newly conquered areas of Kandahar province. Some of the detainees have been killed, according to Afghan media reports.

“Taliban leaders have denied responsibility for any abuses, but growing evidence of expulsions, arbitrary detentions and killings in areas under their control are raising fears among the population,” said Patricia Grossman, associate Asia director for HRW said in a statement. Top officials of Afghanistan’s interior ministry visited Kandahar during the past two weeks, as the government in Kabul tried to buttress the region’s defences.

The Afghan government’s elite units have won praise for their effectiveness, but are considered too few in number to turn back Taliban advances around the country because the more numerous regular Afghan army and police units are poorly trained.

Haji Hakimullah, a resident of Kandahar who served in the police there, said that elite units have in the past few days managed to clear parts of the city of Taliban fighters. But the same districts have quickly fallen again when handed over to police.

“The Afghan special forces are doing a very good job and are capable of handling the situation,” said Mr Hakimullah. “The local police are neither well trained or equipped and this is the main reason the Taliban retake these places easily.”

The Wall Street Journal