US Launches First Airstrikes Against Taliban After Obama’s Order
MEP: The US President Barack Obama has reportedly ordered the country’s military forces to launch their first airstrikes against the armed Taliban, Pentagon reported.
The American officials said on Friday that the strikes began last week and were against Taliban targets in the southern part of the country.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook has said the strikes hit their intended target, though he would not elaborate.
Cook further added that goal of the strikes, “would be a strategic effect on behalf of the Afghan forces that we are enabling.”
The US forces were earlier accompanying the Afghan special forces only when it was needed.
The U.S. military spokesman in Kabul, Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland, said U.S. forces “have conducted a limited number of strikes under these new authorities” but it is “too early to quantify the effects achieved.”
According to the US officials, under the new policy the US commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, will be able to decide when it is appropriate for American troops to accompany conventional Afghan forces into the field.
