In Afghanistan, the Taliban dealt with another pilot by attaching an explosive device to his car.

The representative of the Armed Forces of the country Abdul Fatah Eshakzai told about this in an interview with Reuters.

"Hamidullah Azimi was trained to fly on American helicopters UH-60 Black Hawk (« Black Hawk Down »-.

RT

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He served in the Afghan Air Force for almost four years, ”a spokesman for the Afghan Armed Forces told reporters.

According to him, Azimi has become the eighth victim of the Taliban in the past few months.

A Taliban spokesman * Zabihullah Mujahid also wrote about the death of the pilot on Twitter, adding that it happened in the Kabul region.

الفتح #:


مهم: نن سهار دکابل چهار آسیاب ولسوالۍ بازارکلا چهارسوق سیمه کې د مزدور دښمن یو تن پیلوټ حمیدالله عظیمي (چې دامریکایي بلیک هاک هلیکوپترو پیلوټ و او پرملکي خلکو په بمباریوکې یې برخه لرله) دسپرلۍ په موټرتکتیکي چاودنه وشوه.


په چاودنه کې نوموړی و وژل شو او موټر یې له منځه لاړ.

pic.twitter.com/SZ5DuuUwA7

- Zabihullah (..ذبـــــیح الله م) (@ Zabehulah_M33) August 7, 2021

Earlier in an interview with Reuters, Mujahid said that the Taliban had developed a whole program to destroy Afghan pilots who were trained by American and NATO instructors.

According to him, the pilots of the Afghan Air Force will continue to be "targeted and destroyed."

“It is our duty to strike at those who bombard civilians, who drop bombs on residential buildings without looking, and we will begin to execute it,” Mujahid told reporters.

  • Helicopter Mi-17 in Afghanistan

  • Reuters

  • © US Air Force / Staff Sgt.

    Perry aston

The United States recognizes that there is indeed a problem with the safety of pilots.

Serious attention was paid to it in the quarterly report of the inspector general for reconstruction of Afghanistan John Sopko.

According to the official, the situation when local pilots are being targeted by the Taliban is "alarming."

The reason for the threat of a weakening of the Afghan Air Force, Sopko calls the Pentagon's initiative from 2022 to stop funding the maintenance of Russian Mi-17 helicopters, which are familiar to Afghan pilots, since, by Washington's decision, they will be transferred to the operation of American UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.

According to the inspector general, this will become a serious problem for the Afghan Air Force.

Weaken the enemy

Experts interviewed by RT believe that, without their own air force, the Taliban are eliminating Afghan pilots in order to deprive government forces of an air advantage.

“Given that the US has trained Afghan pilots to fight against the Taliban, the Taliban are forced to respond, and sometimes act proactively,” a military expert, retired colonel Viktor Litovkin, said in a conversation with RT.

Moreover, now it is the most convenient moment for this in view of Washington's intentions to stop allocating funds for servicing Russian Mi-17s, the expert recalled.

At the same time, having made the decision to withdraw the contingent from Afghanistan, Washington continues to provide fire support to government forces.

According to US Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman, Air Force Major Nicole Ferrara, "American forces have carried out a series of airstrikes in recent days to protect our Afghan partners."

In particular, on August 7, the United States sent B-52 bombers to Afghanistan to prevent the Taliban from seizing the city of Shibergan, the capital of one of the country's northern provinces.

“A B-52 bomber attacked a cluster of Taliban militants in the city of Shibergan, Jowzjan province.

As a result of the US Air Force airstrike, terrorists suffered serious losses, ”Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Fawad Aman wrote on Twitter.

#Breaking: Taliban's gathering was targeted by B-52 in #Shebergan city, Jawzjan province today evening at 6:30 pm.

The #terrorists have suffered heavy casualties as a result of US Air Forces #airstrike

- Fawad Aman (@ FawadAman2) August 7, 2021

According to him, over 200 extremists were killed and a large number of weapons, ammunition and more than 100 pieces of equipment were destroyed.

However, such a one-time assistance is more like training your own pilots in combat conditions, says military expert Yuri Knutov.

Since she still did not prevent the Taliban from seizing Shibergan.

"The fact that the United States airlifted B-52s, which participated in the massive bombing of the Taliban in the highlands, is ridiculous and looks more like training pilots than helping the authorities in Kabul," the expert said in a commentary to RT.

However, Washington will continue to organize such actions, Knutov is sure.

“But it will be more ostentatious help to create the appearance that they allegedly do not abandon their own people,” the expert added.

Recall that today, fierce battles between the Taliban and government forces are taking place in three northern provinces: Kunduz, Sari-Pul and Jowzjan.

Earlier it was reported that extremists managed to capture Zaranj, the capital of Nimroz province on the border with Iran and Pakistan.

This city became the first administrative center over which the Taliban established their control.

Before that, they only captured rural areas.

In addition, the radicals reported the seizure of Kuduz, one of the main cities in northern Afghanistan in the province of the same name.

However, the Afghan authorities have already announced that special forces have begun to liberate the village from the militants.

Also, the Taliban announced the establishment of control over Spin Boldak - the main crossing point on the border with Pakistan in the province of Kandahar.

Later, according to media reports, the extremists closed it to all types of transport and pedestrians, urging Islamabad to abolish visas for Afghan citizens.

Thus, as the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said at the end of July, the movement controls about 90% of Afghanistan's borders.

Taking advantage of the situation

Experts believe that the Taliban's military success is due to the vacuum that the Americans have created by rapidly curtailing their 20-year-old operation in the country.

If earlier the United States stood behind the Afghan authorities and supported their combat readiness, now the republic's government is practically left alone with the extremists.

And the disposition of many ordinary Afghans is not on the side of official Kabul, Yuri Knutov believes.

“It is unlikely that the Afghan pro-American government will be able to change the military-political situation in the country, since it has no authority among the people.

Today the bulk of Afghans prefer to support the Taliban.

Therefore, the Taliban take advantage of the confusion of the Afghan government, which was left without a patron, ”he explained.

Viktor Litovkin agrees that the current authorities are not popular with the population.

“The population believes that after the Taliban comes to power, peace will be established in the country, there will be no more war.

In addition, it should be borne in mind that Afghanistan is held by clans that are not friends with each other, and the Taliban wants to unite them under the banner of a reactionary Islamic movement.

And this is perceived positively by Afghans, ”the expert explained.

We will remind, from May 1, the United States began to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, where they were under the pretext of carrying out Operation Enduring Freedom.

The starting point for the withdrawal of American forces from the republic was the agreement that the United States and the Taliban signed at the end of February last year in Qatar.

The US plans to complete the complete evacuation of its military by September 11, 2021 - the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack in New York, which caused the US military to enter Afghanistan.

At the same time, the movement of troops is carried out by the United States quite rapidly - by July 13, the Central Command reported on the withdrawal of 95% of the contingent from Afghanistan.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called this exit "hasty", and also pointed out that it led to the destabilization of the situation in the state.

“Unfortunately ... we have witnessed a rapid degradation of the situation in Afghanistan.

In light of the hasty withdrawal of the US and NATO contingents, the uncertainty of the development of the military-political situation in and around this country has sharply increased, ”Lavrov said at a plenary session of the conference in Tashkent on July 16.

According to experts, the deterioration of the situation inside Afghanistan was the result of the ill-considered policy of the United States.

In an interview with RT, Yuri Knutov compared the results of the stay of the USSR and the USA troops in the country.

“Earlier, the world community hoped that after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, Kabul would fall within a few months.

However, the Afghans held out for quite a long time, because the USSR not only provided military assistance, but also created industrial, cultural, medical, educational facilities, and some Afghans supported this policy, ”the analyst recalled.

Moreover, he is sure, if the then leadership of the USSR had not stopped providing military support to the Afghan authorities, a single coalition government could have been formed in the country.

“The United States did not pursue such a policy: the American military came and established bases, proved to be real occupiers, and then fled and framed the leadership of Kabul, as well as neighboring Tajikistan and Uzbekistan,” Knutov said.

Therefore, the Taliban are now taking advantage of the omission of the Americans and are actively strengthening their positions, says Viktor Litovkin.

The Taliban are taking advantage of the chaos created by the US after leaving Afghanistan.

It is not profitable for the Taliban now, and they will not slow down, ”he summed up.

* "Taliban" - the organization was recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of February 14, 2003.