US air war heats up in Afghanistan amid drawdown
As the United States and its allies began launching airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in August, another — less public — air war was also heating up: in Afghanistan.
According to the latest Pentagon statistics, US combat aircraft dropped more bombs on Taliban and other militant targets in August than it had in any single month in two years — and nearly triple the monthly average since January.
Officials said they were still compiling the bombing statistics for September but the recent up- tick in air attacks in Afghanistan comes as the United States is preparing to pull out about half of its 24,000 troops by the end of the year and curtail most combat operations.
The stepped-up campaign was viewed by some analysts as an effort to beat back recent Taliban gains ahead of the US drawdown. Others saw it as a preview of what might lie ahead as the Afghan government struggles to maintain its own security and needs sustained US help from the air.
The air power statistics, provided by the US Central Command in response to a Globe request, show 436 “weapon releases” in August, compared with the monthly average of about 150 for the previous seven months. That marks the most in a single month since August 2012, the figures show.
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