アフガニスタンの, アフガン War Causes Record Bloodshed Amid US Troop Exit

The simmering war in Afghanistan, if official accounts are to be accepted, has killed more people last month than in any other month since 2001, when the United States and NATO troops invaded the country.

Battlefield violence between pro-Afghan government forces and the Taliban insurgency have particularly surged since May 1, when the last of the U.S.-led international forces formally began exiting the conflict-torn nation under orders from President Joe Biden.

The Taliban have overrun dozens of districts across Afghanistan, including several more during Thursday’s fighting, as foreign troops leave the country. Local Afghan officials and residents say pro-government forces in many areas are surrendering and abandoning territory without offering any resistance to the Taliban.

Afghan security forces, backed by air power, have retaken some of the lost territory and say they have inflicted heavy casualties on the Taliban.

A spokesman for the Defense Ministry said Thursday in a statement that airstrikes had killed nearly 260 insurgent fighters in the past 24 hours.

Each of the Afghan warring sides routinely issues inflated casualty tolls for its opponent, and the numbers are difficult to confirm from independent sources.

On Tuesday, General Ajmal Omar Shinwari, the spokesman for the Afghan security sector, said while briefing reporters about the battlefield activities that hundreds of counteroffensives had killed more than 6,000 insurgents and injured several thousand others in June alone.

The Afghan mainstream TOLOnews said Thursday that Taliban attacks killed close to 700 people, mostly security forces, and wounded at least 1,000 others in June.