Taliban Into Major Cities for First Time in 20 Years
MILITARY OLYMPICS AFRICOM chief meets Biles says she US women with ‘Lightning Brigade’ in will compete in fall to Canada contested area of Somalia balance beam in semifinals Page 3 Gymnastics, Page 22 Soccer, Page 23 Exercise across 17 time zones to show US reach to Russia, China ›› Page 6 stripes.com Volume 80 Edition 77 ©SS 2021 TUESDAY,AUGUST 3, 2021 50¢/Free to Deployed Areas AFGHANISTAN EUROPE Taliban into major cities for first time in 20 years BY SUSANNAH GEORGE The Washington Post KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The Taliban are ramping up pres- sure on some of Afghanistan’s largest cities, striking busy transit hubs and pushing front lines deep into urban areas for the first time since the militants were over- thrown nearly two decades ago. Taliban fighters launched rock- ets Saturday at airports in Kanda- har and Herat, two of the coun- try’s largest cities and busiest eco- nomic centers. The attacks dis- rupted commercial travel, though flights in and out of Herat subse- quently resumed. “There was a large blast and the whole room started shaking,” said Massoud Ahmad Pashtun, the chief of Kandahar airport, who was present at the time of the at- tack. He said three rockets landed within seconds of each other and ‘I got lucky’ damaged one of the runways. The attacks mark a potential turning point in the Afghan con- flict. Previously, clashes were JENNIFER H. SVAN/Stars and Stripes largely confined to the country’s Senior Airman Calixto Rodriguez, left, and Airman Kyle Koury try to break apart debris by the Nims River in Rittersdorf, Germany, on Saturday.
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