Testifying at the House Armed Services Committee, CENTCOM Chief Gen. Frank McKenzie praised the Taliban as having conducted a “very effective” anti-ISIS military operation in Nangarhar Province.
McKenzie revealed this campaign was carried out over the last several months, saying the Taliban paid a very steep price in their own fighters, and that the US military had been providing limited support.
While the Afghan peace deal called on the Taliban to conduct anti-ISIS operations, this reveals they’d already been doing so for months before the deal’s signing. Moreover, the US has been supporting Taliban operations on the ground without telling anyone until now.
Though ISIS has been reported to have been defeated in Nangarhar several times only to return as strong as ever, the Taliban has shown itself unusually effective at fighting ISIS head on, whereas the Afghan military tends to just shell areas and assume the militants were wiped out.
US Commander Says Taliban Has Crushed ISIS With Limited US Support
Taliban 'very effective' in anti-ISIS operations
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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