Afghan National Army soldiers prepare to move out following an inspection of troops at the Regional Military Training Center at Tactical Base Gamberi, Afghanistan, on July 30, 2015. JARROD MORRIS/U.S. ARMY
On May 7th, Afghan security forces launched a counter-offensive in the northern province of Baghlan to retrieve areas recently-captured by the Taliban.
The Afghan Ministry of Defense said that special forces had been deployed in the capital of Baghlan, Pul-e-Khumri. The forces are now working to retrieve several areas, which fell into the hands of Taliban militants in the last few days.
Shafiullah Mohammadi, a special forces commander in Baghlan, told the TOLO News that security forces had “pushed back” Taliban attacks in the district of Baghlan-e-Markazi as well as in the Dahana-e-Ghori area on the outskirts of Pul-e-Khumri.
“The enemy has had 100 casualties in the fight against the national police, the NDS [National Directorate of Security], and the army forces,” Mohammadi said. “Their casualties have increased with the arrival of the commando forces last night and the operation will continue.”
A day earlier, Taliban militants imposed control of the Shahr-e Kohna region in Baghlan-e Markazi after overrunning two checkpoints of Afghan security forces.
According to local officials, the highways connecting Baghlan with the provinces of Takhar and Kunduz in northern and northeastern Afghanistan have been closed to traffic for the last two days due to clashes.
The Taliban’s large-scale offensive in Baghlan was launched after the U.S. did not follow the 1st May deadline for the withdrawal. Washington claimed its plan to pull all troops out from Afghanistan by September 11.
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So the Afghan Special Forces come in then the Taliban slink away and go into hiding for a couple of weeks until the Special Forces get called away to some other hot spot. The Taliban come back in and take over again and the process begins again until the hot areas exceed the ability of Special Forces to fight in so many places at the same time. Slowly the Taliban will take control of more and more like they did before 9/11 . There are media reports that the Taliban control more today than when the US invaded./ That is bulls#it as they controlled 90-95% of Afghanistan and they are about 50% now.