NY Times, Kabul
US military aircraft struck a number of Taleban positions this week in support of faltering Afghan government forces, in one of the first significant American reactions to the insurgents' blistering advance across Afghanistan as US troops withdraw.
At least one of the strikes was against Taleban positions in the key southern city of Kandahar, slowing an advance that threatened to take over the city.
The Taleban called the strikes "disobedience" to last year's withdrawal agreement with the Americans, and they warned of unspecified "consequences" - an indication that the airstrikes had an impact on the insurgent group. The scale and pace of the Taleban advance has provoked alarm among top US military and civilian officials in recent days.
The Taleban now threaten most of Afghanistan's 34 provincial capitals and even Kabul, the national capital. The group has overrun more than half of the country's 400-odd districts, in many cases seizing them without a fight, since it began its offensive in earnest in May.
This week's airstrikes, which took place Wednesday (July 21) and Thursday, reflect both the level of American worry and the Afghan military's continued need for US air support, as Washington attempts to end nearly 20 years of war in the country.
They were the first such strikes since the top US commander in Afghanistan, Gen Austin S. Miller, stepped down last week.
Afghan forces have been reeling in the face of the Taleban offensive, as the United States nears completion of a pullout of its remaining forces.
The United States and other major powers are pushing for a peace deal between the Taleban and the Afghan government, but the Taleban believe they are winning the war, leaving little incentive to negotiate.
"We do have deep concerns about the actions the Taleban is taking, indicating that it may be trying to take the country by force," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday on MSNBC. "But were that to happen, Afghanistan would be a pariah state."
On Wednesday, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Mark A. Milley, warned of the possibility of a "complete Taleban takeover," saying the insurgents now had the "strategic momentum" in the fight against Afghan government forces.
Several Pentagon officials confirmed that additional bombing raids around Kandahar and other contested areas are likely in the coming days. "We've been doing it where and when feasible, and we'll keep doing it where and when feasible," one official said, speaking anonymously to describe operational planning.
Kandahar province, in the country's ethnic Pashtun heartland, was the birthplace of the Taleban in the 1990s, when the group swept to control of the entire country. In recent weeks, the Taleban have captured areas around the provincial capital of the same name, the largest city in southern Afghanistan, and penetrated into the city.
Pentagon officials confirmed the recent US strikes but were tight-lipped about specifics.
They have been similarly ambiguous for weeks about the scale and scope of continued US military involvement in Afghanistan's war, though they indicated earlier this month that it could continue at least until the withdrawal was completed at the end of August.
The Taleban said the airstrikes were carried out in Kandahar and in the neighbouring province of Helmand.
Defence Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said this week that US forces had equipped a base "to be able to conduct over-the-horizon strikes" in Afghanistan. Other officials said the base was in the United Arab Emirates.
As the US pullout accelerated and Bagram Airfield was handed over to the Afghans, US officials suggested that US air power would be employed against the Taleban in limited circumstances, at least through Aug. 31.