Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Canada will send special forces to evacuate their embassy staff in Afghanistan in the midst of increasing attacks Taliban in that country.
An official who did not want to be identified confirmed this news directly to Associated Press. However, he did not elaborate on the number of special forces deployed.
With this decision, Canada is following in the footsteps of a number of other countries that have sent teams to evacuate their citizens from Afghanistan.
A few hours before this Canadian news, Britain also announced the sending of about 600 troops to Afghanistan to help evacuate its citizens. The United States also sent 3,000 troops to evacuate their embassy staff in Kabul.
Previously, Canada had also evacuated a number of Afghans who helped their country’s military operations in the conflict area.
The Canadian government promised to launch a special program so that the Afghans could be accepted in society because they were very instrumental to the troops while still serving on the battlefield.
Canada had indeed participated in the US and NATO-led military missions in Afghanistan. They sent 40 thousand soldiers for 13 years. However, Canada withdrew their troops from Afghanistan in 2014.
At that time, the US military claimed that they had succeeded in educating Afghan forces so that they could fight insurgent groups. The US also decided to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan this year.
However, after the US began withdrawing troops, the Taliban continued to intensify their attacks in Afghanistan. Yesterday, Thursday (12/8), the Taliban were even reported to have captured Ghazni, a city 150 kilometers from the Afghan capital, Kabul.
Ghazni is the 10th provincial capital to fall to the Taliban. Some observers also predict Kabul will fall into the hands of the Taliban in the next 90 days.
The Taliban has continued to expand its attacks since the US decided to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. Last week, they even claimed to have seized 90 percent of the country’s territory.
However, Afghan government forces have vowed to retake areas now controlled by the Taliban.
An Afghan troop source said they were working out a strategy to launch a large-scale attack.
(has)
– .
