Taliban militants launched an offensive Thursday to take a major provincial capital in Afghanistan, a move that if successful, would mark the biggest Taliban victory since the U.S. invasion in 2001.
The militants have wiped out checkpoints around the city and are now on the verge of taking the police headquarters and governor’s compound, a spokesman for the provincial governor told The New York Times.
“The whereabouts of the police are not known, whether they have joined the Taliban or escaped somewhere,” the spokesman continued. The spokesman’s statement indicates the local police may have either been paid by the Taliban, or defected into their ranks. If the Taliban is able to capture the provincial capital, it will mark only the second time since 2001 the Taliban have been able to seize a major Afghan city.
The Taliban push is just a smaller facet of a larger Taliban offensive on two additional provincial capitals in southern and northern Afghanistan. In southern Afghanistan, the Taliban have surrounded the major city of Lashkar Gah in Helmand province. Hundreds of NATO troops died in Helmand province during the NATO combat mission in Afghanistan from 2001-2014, and it was the site of President Barack Obama’s first major foreign policy decision in 2010. Obama deployed an additional 100 troops to Lashkar Gah to reinforce Afghan forces, but the remainder of the province remains largely in Taliban hands.
Click here to continue reading…
SOURCE: SAAGAR ENJETI
Daily Caller
BCNN1 WP 