Fighting erupts in Afghanistan after US pullout deadline
The Taliban armed group launches assaults across Afghanistan after a missed US deadline to withdraw troops.
Afghanistan’s security forces have fought back a Taliban offensive in southern Helmand province, officials and residents have said, as the armed group launched assaults around the country after a missed United States deadline to withdraw troops.
Attaullah Afghan, the head of Helmand’s provincial council, said the Taliban had launched its offensive on Monday from multiple directions. The group attacked checkpoints around the outskirts of the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, taking over some of them, he said.
“There was a thunderstorm of heavy weapons and blasts in the city and the sound of small arms was like someone was making popcorn,” Mulah Jan, a resident of a Lashkar Gah suburb, told Reuters news agency on Tuesday.
“I took all my family members to the corner of the room, hearing the heavy blasts and bursts of gunfire as if it was happening behind our walls,” he said.
Families that could afford to leave had fled, but he had been unable to go, waiting with his family in fear before the Taliban was pushed back.
A Taliban surge in Helmand would have particular resonance, as the opium-growing desert province was where US and British forces suffered the bulk of their losses during the 20-year war.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/...llout-deadline
US misses pullout deadline- Taliban expresses distaste for betrayal.
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