U.S. goes at Taliban from air

Strikes first since Obama widened options in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The U.S. military has launched its first airstrikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan since President Barack Obama's decision earlier this month to expand the United States' involvement, two U.S. officials said Friday.

The two officials confirmed the airstrikes began this month, but wouldn't elaborate on their outcome.

U.S. military spokesman in Kabul, Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland, said U.S. forces "have conducted a limited number of strikes under these new authorities" but that it is "too early to quantify the effects achieved."

The strikes "are only being used where they may help the Afghans achieve a strategic effect," Cleveland said, stressing that the U.S. military is "still in the process of fully operationalizing new authorities."

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said the expanded U.S. military authorities have been in effect for about the past week or so.

Obama decided in early June to expand the United States' involvement with more airstrikes against insurgents, giving the U.S. military wider latitude to support Afghan forces, both in the air and on the ground.

Since all foreign combat troops pulled out of Afghanistan at the end of 2014, leaving only an advisory and training contingent of international forces behind, the Afghan military has struggled in leading the fight against the Taliban and other militants.

The 9,800 remaining U.S. troops in Afghanistan were scheduled to drop to 5,500 by the end of this year, but the pace of that decline has yet to be decided. One factor in determining future troop levels is the extent to which NATO allies are willing to remain involved in training and advising the Afghans.

Meanwhile, an Afghan official reported Islamic State militants in the country's east have killed eight people, including two women and two children.

Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial governor, says two policemen were among those killed and seven civilians were wounded in Friday's violence in Kot district, where Islamic State militants attacked several checkpoints.

Khogyani says the ISIS extremists also burned down 25 houses in the district.

He says Afghan forces responded to the attack and that fighting with Islamic State militants is continuing in the district and that about 30 militants have been killed in fierce clashes.

An Islamic State affiliate has emerged over the past year in eastern Afghanistan. Insurgent attacks against both Afghan security forces and civilians have escalated across the country as part of the insurgents' warm-weather offensive.

Information for this article was contributed by Lolita C. Baldor and staff members of The Associated Press.

A Section on 06/25/2016

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