McConnell calls for US airstrikes to ‘prevent the Taliban from overrunning Kabul’

The top Republican in the US Senate has called on the United States to carry out airstrikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan, saying that “it is not too late to prevent the Taliban from overrunning Kabul.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Friday that the United States should conduct airstrikes against the Taliban militants and provide support to Afghan forces to stop the group from capturing Kabul.

McConnell said in a statement that the Biden administration “should move quickly to hammer Taliban advances with airstrikes, provide critical support to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) defending the capital, and prevent the seemingly imminent fall of the city.”

“If they fail to do so, the security threat to the United States will assuredly grow and the humanitarian cost to innocent Afghans will be catastrophic,” the Kentucky senator warned.

McConnell also noted that he had spoken with the Afghanistan ambassador to the United States, saying they had “an urgent conversation” regarding “the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and the unfolding humanitarian crisis."

A day earlier, the senior senator from Kentucky said Afghanistan was careening toward a “massive, predictable, and preventable disaster”.

The US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 and removed the Taliban from power. American forces occupied the country for about 20 years on the pretext of fighting against the Taliban. But as the US forces are leaving Afghanistan, the Taliban are set to invade Kabul, weakened by foreign occupation.

The Taliban on Friday solidified its sweep through Afghanistan’s north, south, and west weeks before the official end of the US military occupation of the country. The Taliban now control most of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals and about two-thirds of the country as a whole.

Amid the worsening situation in Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced on Thursday it was deploying 3,000 American troops to Afghanistan to evacuate most of the embassy personnel from Kabul, leaving only "a core diplomatic presence" in the country.

The US embassy in Kabul on Friday reportedly directed its staff to destroy sensitive documents and computers as well as other material that could be used against the United States, as the Taliban are preparing to attack Kabul.

According to reports, the possibility the capital Kabul could fall in the next weeks has grown stronger with the Taliban's gains, and that the fall of the government in Kabul could happen much more quickly than previously anticipated.

UN chief calls on Taliban militants to halt offensive against Afghan govt. forces

The UN chief has called on Taliban militants to halt their offensive against Afghan government forces.

The Pentagon said on Friday the Taliban’s rapid takeover of large parts of Afghanistan is “deeply concerning” to the United States after the militants seized the country’s second-and third-biggest cities.

On Friday, the Taliban claimed control of the capital of Logar province, putting them just about 80 kilometers away from Kabul, the capital of the country.

US President Joe Biden defended his decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan last month, and said that a Taliban takeover in Afghanistan is not “inevitable.”

“The Taliban is not the North Vietnamese Army. They're not remotely comparable in terms of capability,” he said during a speech in the White House East Room. “There's going to be no circumstances where you’re going to see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy in the United States from Afghanistan.”

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