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On November 16, Taliban fighters stormed two checkpoints of the Afghan National Army (ANA) around the capital of the central province of Ghazni, according to the Afghan group news agency, Voice of Jihad.
The Taliban claimed that its fighters killed more than eleven Afghan soldiers and injured nine others in the course of the attack. Several light weapons were also captured.
Meanwhile, Col. Fazul Khuda Ibrahimkhail, a spokesman for the ANA, told the Afghan Bakhta News Agency (BNA) that the army and the Afghan Air Force attacked several positions of the Taliban in the districts of Andar and Qara Bagh in Ghazni. As a result, more than 20 fighters of the Afghan group were killed.
Despite Afghan government forces’ efforts, the Taliban is still capable of conducting successful attacks in central Afghanistan. The Afghan group is likely attempting to esablish full control of some vital highways in the region, especially the ones leading to the capital, Kabul.
Afghanistan is looking more and more like South Vietnam in its last days. The liberation forces now control more territory in areas that have a non-Pashtun population. This shows widespread support for the resistance groups. Farah, Ghazni, Mazar e Sharif, Herat are mostly Persian/Dari speaking areas,
Trumps limited drone war strategy isn’t working. If he wants to turn this around in ANA favor he would have to do boots on ground surge like in Iraq 2007 and Afghanistan 2009.