The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has promised that it will continue training Afghan special forces outside the country when it withdraws the last of its personnel from Afghanistan after an 18-year mission led by the United States to topple and replace the country’s Islamist government.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO’s revised role would involve giving ‘advice and capacity-building support to Afghan security institutions, as well as continued financial support’.
The US military is still finalising plans on how it will withdraw all remaining US forces and NATO forces by President Biden’s withdrawal date of September.
Concerns are rising among some analysts that the full withdrawal of NATO troops and advisors will lead to growing violence in the country, given that, since the announcement of the withdrawal date, attacks by the Taliban in Afghanistan have surged. Critics of the withdrawal have said that withdrawing troops will threaten the Afghan government.
One of the latest attacks occurred last Thursday when militants stopped a bus, ordered three men to get out, and shot them by the roadside.
[Image: Amber Clay from Pixabay]