On Sunday, the US carried out an airstrike in central Afghanistan’s Wardak Province. The US spokesmen say that they killed five people, all of them Taliban, and reports that they killed civilians were definitely not true.
Not killing civilians would be only a minor accomplishment, as under the February peace deal the US isn’t supposed to be attacking the Taliban either. Despite this, the US insists the attack on the Taliban is “in accordance with” the peace deal.
The Taliban probably won’t see it that way, but the US seems determined to keep up the airstrikes just to prove they can, even if it means risking the peace deal they signed. The goal seems to be slowly approaching peace while keeping up attacks.
This is the latest in a series of airstrikes by US and Afghan forces that have come with reports of civilian casualties, which the perpetrators were quick to dismiss. This has been an ongoing concern, and as US troop levels go down, the intelligence on which airstrikes are launched seems flimsier too, opening up risks for civilians.
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