US launched recent air strikes in Afghanistan, Pentagon says

American air power has long provided Afghan forces with a tactical advantage over Taliban

US Army Central Command (Centcom), Gen Kenneth McKenzie, authorised the strike, the Pentagon said. Reuters/US Air Force Handout

The US carried out air strikes as it backed the Afghan Army's attempts to repel a Taliban offensive, the Pentagon said on Thursday, with the withdrawal of international forces from the country all but complete.

“In the last several days, we have acted through air strikes to support to the [Afghan National Security Forces]," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

“We continue to … conduct air strikes in support” of the Afghan military, he told reporters at a press briefing, and added that the head of the US Army Central Command (Centcom), Gen Kenneth McKenzie, had authorised the strike.

Mr Kirby said he could not provide details on the air strikes, but echoed Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin's Wednesday statement that the US remains “committed to helping the Afghan security forces and the Afghan government going forward".

US air power has long provided Afghan forces with a tactical advantage over the Taliban ——one that many fear will be eroded by the withdrawal of international troops, though Afghanistan's own fledgling air force is flying into the breach.

Also on Wednesday, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Mark Milley, acknowledged the Taliban regime now control about half of Afghanistan's roughly 400 districts, but added they had taken none of the country's densely populated main cities.

He said the US withdrawal, set to be finished by August 31, is now 95 per cent complete.

The resurgent militants have pressed a sweeping offensive against government forces since May amid the withdrawal of the US-led foreign forces.

A Taliban spokesman on Thursday told Russian media that the group now controlled 90 per cent of Afghanistan's borders, but the claim could not be independently verified. The militants are known to exaggerate their battlefield claims.

Afghan women and a boy outside a shop in the old quarter of Kabul.

An Afghan woman in an alley in Kabul's old quarter.

A girl uses a hand pump to fill a container with drinking water in Kabul, Afghanistan.

A young girl in the old quarter of Kabul.

Children play football on a dried-up lake bed in Kabul.

An Afghan security official searches a vehicle at a check point in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand province, Afghanistan.

A security official checks people at a check point in Lashkar Gah, in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

Afghan National Army soldiers at a roadside check point in Herat, the provincial capital of Herat province in Afghanistan.

Afghan soldiers stand guard at a check point in Herat, Afghanistan.