U.S. commanders exercised new authorities for the first time this week by ordering airstrikes against Taliban targets in southern Afghanistan, the Pentagon confirmed Friday.
Until recently, the U.S. was prohibited from conducting “offensive” strikes against the Taliban, because technically the U.S. is no longer at war with the group.
But earlier this month, President Obama agreed to give commanders the authority to go after the Taliban when the strikes would produce a “strategic effect” that would advance the cause of the Afghan Army that is at war with the Taliban, and which the U.S. is advising and assisting.
The new rules also expanded the circumstances when U.S. troops could accompany Afghan forces on the ground.
Pentagon Spokesman Peter Cook provided few details about the airstrikes except to say they they were the first use of the new authorities, that they were in southern Afghanistan and that they appeared to have been successful.
“These airstrikes, my understanding, did hit their intended targets. It’s part of an ongoing operation that, again, the goal of which would be a strategic effect on behalf of … the Afghan forces that we are enabling, and that’s exactly what they were intended to be used for,” Cook said.
