Kabul, Feb 11 : Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry has claimed that it is capable of effectively tackling terrorists on its own after foreign troops leave the country. In an interview to Sputnik, the Afghan Defense Ministry’s spokesperson Rohullah Ahmadzai said that Afghan armed forces are capable of carrying out almost all security operations by themselves and will be able to protect the country from terrorists after foreign troops leave. Ahmadzai explained how the capacity of the Afghan military has risen over the years. “If we look at the 2014 year, there were more than 100,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, but today that number has dropped to 2,500, with an independent operation being conducted by us now, which is a big difference and shows that our forces now have the capacity and skills.
to conduct almost 100 per cent of their own operations, as could be seen during the last presidential election when Afghan forces were able to provide security on their own.”
He noted that international partners continue to stand by Afghan forces, providing air support during operations.
Regarding the recent Taliban drone attacks on the Pamir corps, he assured that “Afghan forces are well-prepared against any attack by the enemy,” and noted that the Islamist movement was “not capable of direct combat.”
The 2020 US-Taliban peace deal envisaged a conditional foreign troop withdrawal by May 2021. Current US President Joe Biden has, for now, put the Trump-era deal under review.