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AT Monitoring Desk-KABUL: Considering the Taliban insurgents as no longer an existential threat to the government, a top Pentagon official has said that this year the Afghan security forces are struggling with a very difficult environment as fighting intensified in the country.
Speaking at a Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, the US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Christine E. Wormuth, said as the Afghan National Security Forces responsible to maintain peace and security at the country, the Spring Offensive of the Taliban insurgents is a test of security forces’ strength.
“Afghan forces are absorbing the blows this fighting season, because the Taliban insurgents have resorted to the hit and run attack tactics,” Wormuth said.
The Taliban insurgent has been making efforts to undermine the writ of the government through launching high-profile attacks, she said. “However, the victims are mostly innocent civilians,” she added.
“A few of the commander I talked told me the whole concept of a fighting season may not really have the same meaning it used to. The periods of fighting are not constrained to a point on the calendar as they once were,” she said.
She further said that Afghan forces were going through difficult times and experiencing high casualty rates. And most of the casualties were taking place in remote areas of the country, she added.
She said that when Afghan forces are going after Taliban to clear area from their presence, they have much lower casualty rates and it’s the Taliban insurgents that sustained heavy casualties.
