KABUL - US forces are conducting operations to prevent Al-Qaeda from using Afghanistan as a launching pad for attack against the West, a top American military official said on Thursday.
Brig. Gen. Charles H. Cleveland, Resolute Support mission’s deputy communications chief, told a Pentagon media briefing the troops were authorised to target the Islamic State.
“We believe we really have arguably the best counterterrorism forces on the planet … here in Afghanistan,” Cleveland remarked, calling the counter-Daesh campaign as an aggressive effort.
About 100 counterterrorism strikes were conducted in the first three months of the current year, he said of operations Al-Qaeda and Daesh targets in Afghanistan. Less than 19 strikes were carried out last month, mostly against Daesh targets.

“The No. 1 goal is for Afghans to be able to defend their own territory and address transnational and trans-regional terrorist organisations that often will base in this region and then try and strike the West,” he said in a report on Pentagon’s website. (Pajhwok)