Top officials in the White House were aware in early 2019 of classified intelligence indicating Russia was secretly offering bounties to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans, a full year earlier than has been previously reported, according to U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the intelligence.
According to U.S. Air Forces Central Command, U.S. aircraft dropped 7,423 munitions in 2019 — that’s the highest number of bombs released in nearly a decade.
U.S. and Afghan forces were pulled into a nearly nine to 10 hour firefight after a suicide bombing targeted a medical facility that was under construction near the base, a source on the ground detailed to Military Times.
A powerful suicide bombing targeted an under-construction medical facility Wednesday near Bagram Air Base, the main American base north of Afghanistan’s capital, the U.S. military and Afghan officials said. Two civilians were killed and more than 70 people wounded.
SMART news agency said it spoke to the leader of the U.S. commando patrol who told SMART that “their forces will target the Turkish army if it advances inside Syrian territory more than the agreed distance between the United States and Turkey,” according to a translation of the Arabic caption describing the video.
The U.S. dropped more munitions in Afghanistan in September than any other month since October 2010 when America had nearly 100,000 troops on the ground.
Absent U.S. assistance in the region, America risks handing the reins of the country’s future to a resurgent ISIS, al-Qaida offshoots and the maligned interests of Iran, Russia and other actors in the region.