US 'acts through' airstrikes in a bid to repel Taliban, says Pentagon

The US carried out airstrikes across Afghanistan in the past several days as part of an effort to support the Afghan security forces fighting Taliban insurgents, the Pentagon has said.

The news of US airstrikes in Afghanistan came a day after America’s most senior military officer admitted that the Taliban had gained “strategic momentum,” with their forces now controlling about half of Afghanistan's more than 400 district centres.

The Pentagon, however, refrained from giving any specifics of its airstrikes in Afghanistan.

“Without speaking to specifics, I can say that in the last several days, we have acted through airstrikes to support the ANDSF (Afghan National Defense and Security Forces) but I won't get into tactical details of those strikes,” Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters on Thursday at a news conference here.

“But we continue to be able to and we continue to, as the Secretary said yesterday, conduct airstrikes in support of the ANDSF,” he said.

The commander of US forces in the region, Central Command's General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, would retain the authority to call for airstrikes in support of Afghan forces until the US withdrawal from Afghanistan was complete.