Officials say carrier to help protect Afghanistan pullout

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By LOLITA C. BALDOR and ROBERT BURNS

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon has decided to keep an aircraft carrier in the Middle East to help provide protection for American and coalition troops during their planned withdrawal from Afghanistan in coming weeks, U.S. defense officials said Friday.

Also, two U.S. Air Force bombers will be deployed to Afghanistan as part of the pre-pullout bolstering of security.

The moves back up Pentagon officials’ public assurances that U.S. forces will be prepared to meet whatever resistance the Taliban might present during the withdrawal of more than 10,000 U.S. and coalition troops starting after May 1. About 2,500 to 3,500 of those troops are American.

“I would advise the Taliban that we will be well-prepared to defend ourselves throughout the withdrawal process,” Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, said Thursday at the Pentagon.



FILE- in this Sunday, Dec. 24, 2017, photo, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff speaks during a ceremony on Christmas Eve at a U.S. airfield in Bagram, north of Kabul, Afghanistan. The U.S. military has begun shipping equipment and winding down contracts with local service providers ahead of the May 1 start of the final phase of its military pullout from Afghanistan, a U.S. Defense Department official said Thursday, April 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/politics-middle-east-government-and-politics-afghanistan-287fa640989a11f27d1af1ed0f765399

[llashram]

1. glad they are

being brought home to families and friends. I trust our government to handle all presented here.