U.S. military spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett said in a tweet that the “defensive” strike was the first U.S. attack against the militants in 11 days, as U.S. conducted Wednesday its first air-strike against Taliban forces in Afghanistan.
This happened Days after signing an ambitious peace deal with the militant group in the Mid-eastern state of Qatar.
He said the attack was to counter a Taliban assault on Afghan government forces in Nahr-e Saraj in the southern Helmand province.
Leggett added that Taliban forces had conducted 43 attacks on Afghan troops on Tuesday in Helmand. According to a spokesman for the province’s governor, Omer Zwak, at least two police officers were killed and one other wounded in the Washir district of southern Helmand.
Leggett called on the Taliban to stop the attacks and uphold their commitments based on the agreement signed on Feb. 29 between their leaders and U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Doha, Qatar, which lays out a conditions-based path to the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan.
