Taliban launches huge offensive after US’ Trump-era Afghanistan withdrawal deadline missed
- Afghan security forces launched air strikes and deployed elite commando forces to fight off the offensive in Helmand
- Although the United States did not meet the May 1 withdrawal deadline agreed last year, its troop pull-out has begun
Afghan security forces fought back a huge Taliban offensive in southern Helmand province, officials and residents said on Tuesday, as militants launched assaults around the country following a missed US deadline to withdraw troops.
“There was a thunderstorm of heavy weapons and blasts in the city and the sound of small arms was like someone was making popcorn,” said Mulah Jan, a resident of a suburb of provincial capital Lashkar Gah.
“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 were pushed back.
Attaullah Afghan, the head of Helmand’s provincial council, said the Taliban had launched their huge offensive on Monday from multiple directions, attacking checkpoints around the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, taking over some of them.
Afghan security forces had launched air strikes and deployed elite commando forces to the area. The insurgents had been pushed back but fighting was continuing on Tuesday and hundreds of families had been displaced, he added.
