Another Obama Success Story–
Obama announced in 2014 he would
#Officials: withdrawal US troops from Afghanistan. That was last year. #Officials: #Taliban now control more ground in #Afghanistan than #ISIS in #Syria and #Iraq together pic.twitter.com/LAT9cwvLu3 — Abdul Bari (@Jabhatulnusra) September 15, 2015 The Taliban took control of several provinces this year after US troops were brought home. The Taliban now control most of northern Helmand province, and will likely push its offensive towards Lashkar Gah in central Helmand, as Afghan security forces are stretched thin with an ongoing Taliban offensive in the Afghan north. This spring and summer, the Taliban have taken control of at least four of the seven districts in Kunduz province and have also seized districts in Sar-i-Pul and Badakhshan provinces. The northern-most district of Baghran was never liberated from the Taliban during the US ‘surge’ from 2009 to 2012. Sangin district is at best contested; after two months of fighting in Sangin in the summer 2014, local Afghan officials opened peace talks with the Taliban. Kajaki district is largely under Taliban control, Afghan officials have said. In July, the Taliban released a video showing its fighters parading in Kajaki. Now Zad district fell to the Taliban at the end of July. This year Taliban has made a push on multiple fronts to regain territory it lost during the US surge. More than 30,000 US troops were deployed to Afghanistan, primarily in the south, to retake Taliban-held areas in Helmand and Kandahar during the surge. While the Taliban suffered heavy losses and lost control of key districts, the group was not defeated militarily or politically. The Taliban regrouped in Pakistan and other provinces in Afghanistan, and began attacking Afghan security forces as US forces began their withdrawal. Read the rest here.
Today the Taliban reportedly controls more territory that ISIS does in Syria and Iraq combined.
Long War Journal reported:
