2 additional @usairforce#B52s from @TeamMinot, arrived at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, May 4, to support @CENTCOM region in protecting U.S. and coalition forces as they conduct drawdown operations from Afghanistan. #AnywhereAnytime#B52uesday@USAFCENT@US_Stratcom@DeptofDefensehttps://t.co/f8HjoAfURU
— AFGSC (@AFGlobalStrike) May 4, 2021
The withdrawal is felt as an abandonment by the Afghanistan puppet government and its armed forces.
Immediately as the drawdown began, areas of Burka district in Baghlan fell under Taliban control after clashes on May 4th.
The local officials moved their offices to other places in the district after the Taliban captured some parts of the district.
In the meantime, Jawid Basharat, a spokesman for the provincial police, has also confirmed the incident, saying: “Security forces have made a tactical retreat and are preparing for operations in the district.”
The Taliban claimed of capturing the police HQ, the district government office and several security outposts.
In the two days leading to May 4th, the Taliban mounted major attacks in the Baghlan-e-Markazi district of the province.
Separately, Afghanistan’s security forces reportedly fought back a Taliban offensive in southern Helmand province, officials and residents have said.
Attaullah Afghan, the head of Helmand’s provincial council, said the Taliban had launched its offensive on May 3rd from multiple directions. The group attacked checkpoints around the outskirts of the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, taking over some of them, he said.
The Afghan government is fighting back, however.
The Afghan government said that it had killed more than 60 Taliban fighters in a series of offensives against the group after assuming control of a key US military base a day earlier.
“Backed by aerial support, the operations were conducted independently by local forces without any aid, cooperation or involvement of foreign troops,” Fawad Aman, a defense ministry spokesman said.
“During the past 24 hours, 62 Taliban were killed, and 58 others were wounded in these operations,” he said.
The assaults covered several provinces in the south, northeast and eastern regions of the war-torn country, with a focus on the Ghazni province, to the southwest of Kabul, and the southern Helmand province where the US military formally handed over control of the Camp Antonik base to the government.
Aman said that the operations were in response to the Taliban’s “provocations” and were aimed at “destroying their planning centers, used for attacking government forces.”
Meanwhile, Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, accused Kabul of “showing and testing its force by launching the operations on Taliban-held areas, forcing the Taliban to prevent and respond.”
source:southfront.org
