Mindful of Afghanistan situation, says Pentagon

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Pentagon has said they continue to explore additional over-the-horizon capabilities with Afghanistan’s neighboring nations and that the United States is mindful of Taliban advances.

Addressing a press conference in Washington, Pentagon press secretary John F. Kirby said about over-the-horizon capabilities said that General McKenzie and the secretary himself were exploring this daily.  We’re still working — working through this”.

He said the US had already over-the-horizon counterterrorism capabilities at its disposal. “And it’s fairly robust, even.  I mean, we’ve got a sizable footprint in the Middle East and facilities ashore that we can utilize with fixed-wing air — air assets, both manned and unmanned, in the region”

He said they were not seeing the same level of terrorism threat emanating from Afghanistan that we once did.

“And that’s a big reason why, in fact, the president ordered the drawdown.  I mean, we had accomplished the mission of — of not getting attacked from Afghanistan here on the homeland over the last 20 years.” But it did not mean the US was taking an eye off the ball.

About Taliban’s advances, Kirby said  he did not have an up-to-date operational assessment of Taliban advances. He said the Taliban had taken dozens of district center. “And we believe that they mean to threaten provincial centers as well.  But I don’t want to — I just don’t think it’ll be useful for me to get into a tick-tock of — of everything they’ve been doing on the ground.”

He added: “We are mindful of the security situation.  We are mindful of the Taliban’s advances.  And — and that’s why it is so important for us to continue to press for a negotiated political settlement to this war.”

ma

Views: 225