WASHINGTON, 25 July 2021, (TON): US warplanes carried out at least four sets of airstrikes in Afghanistan this week in support of Afghan government troops who have ceded ever-growing swathes of the country to the Taliban Islamist insurgency.

Pentagon officials said “the Pentagon acknowledged the bombing raids, which took place on Wednesday and Thursday, but refused to provide any details as to the aircraft or munitions involved. The targets struck were in southern Kandahar province, the historic stronghold of the Taliban, and in Kunduz in the north. Among the targets were materiel captured by the Taliban from government forces, including at least one piece of artillery and armored vehicles.”

In both Kunduz and Kandahar, the security forces of Afghanistan’s puppet government are facing increasing pressure from Taliban on their respective provincial capitals.

In a Pentagon press conference on Wednesday, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, provided a confirmation of the breadth and speed of the Taliban’s advances, acknowledging that the insurgency had seized about half of the country’s 419 district centers. Just last month, he told Congress that the Taliban held only 81 centers. This official count is no doubt a significant underestimate. And, in many cases, district centers still held by the government forces are islands surrounded by Taliban-controlled countryside.”