Tuesday, October 25, 2016

U.S. Use Of Air Power Is Increasing In Afghanistan

An F-16 fighter jet takes off from Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan in May 2015. (Tech. Sgt. Joseph Swafford / U.S. Air Force)

Military.com/L.A. TimesTaliban's Onslaught Across Afghanistan Draws Increased US Air Power

REPORTING FROM BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan -- One after another, American fighter jets and armed drones screech down the runway at this mountain-fringed northern military outpost, launching missions around the clock to support Afghan forces battling militants aligned with Islamic State and the Taliban.

More than 700 U.S. airstrikes have been carried out this year against the militants, twice as many as last year, as Afghan soldiers and police have struggled to contain a perpetual insurgency.

The ferocity of the fighting, more than 15 years after the U.S.-led military invasion, highlights Afghanistan's deepening security crisis and unremitting reliance on the United States. The Taliban has waged a campaign of attacks on government-held provincial capitals throughout the country and is expected to continue its assault well into the winter months, beyond what was historically referred to as the "fighting season."

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The war is expanding and the Taliban are having an impact .... and one can only assume that if it was not for the presence of U.S. air power over the battlefield and U.S. special operators on the ground, the Taliban would probably be on the verge of seizing (if not already seized) a number of Afghan provinces and provincial capitals.

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