With the three-day ceasefire in Afghanistan having ended on Sunday night, the Taliban have launched their first large-scale offensive of the resumed fighting, making substantial gains in the Badghis Province.
A multi-hour Taliban offensive involving fighters attacking from several directions overran a military base in Balamerghab District. The Taliban ended up in control over the base, killing 30 soldiers along the way. 15 Taliban were also reported slain.
In addition to take over the base, the Taliban also hit a pair of military checkpoints in the area around the same time, in the same district. These attacks were likely an attempt to district from the much bigger offensive on the base itself.
The three-day ceasefire was the first taste of peace Afghanistan has had in decades. There was even hope that a ceasefire extension would happen after a proposal by President Ghani. Instead, the fighting has resumed, and Afghan government forces are once again on the losing end of it.
The Taliban are usually idiots for the West, kept alive long enough to continue justification for keeping troops in Afghanistan.
This was in Badghis province, western Afghanistan, in Iran’s (not Pakistan’s) sphere of influence. So this was a little howdy-do from Iran to the USA.
Wrong. Trying to blame Iran is a very popular US/Zionist propaganda goal. Dispensing with this propaganda-motivated spin, and returning instead to reality…. this is not about Iran.
The Taliban are Pashtun. Their tribal area spans Afghanistan from east to west, and extends into Pakistan. [10,750,117 (2015) Pashtun in Afghanistan, 30,699,037 (2012) Pashtun in Pakistan]
Below is a map of the tribal regions of Afghanistan:
https://cdn.nybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Afghanistan-ethnolinguistic-groups.png
Badghis Province on the map is the area to the upper left of the “A” in Afghanistan. See the orange — ie Pashtun — area? Yeah, there it is.
So reality then…
The Pashtun/Taliban are simply reasserting control in their millennia-long tribal territory. Removing the US-installed puppet’s military presence.
I know, “reality” … what an annoying concept.