The Taliban said that it has launched an effort to track down and assassinate Afghan Air Force pilots in what U.S. and Afghan officials believe is an attempt to dismantle the country’s military amid the Biden administration’s ongoing withdrawal of U.S. troops. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters on Friday that its campaign was meant to make sure that Afghan Air Force pilots are “targeted and eliminated because all of them do bombardment against their people." ADVERTISEMENTZamaray is one of seven pilots who two senior Afghan government officials told Reuters have been assassinated while off of Afghan Air Force bases in recent months. Afghanistan's government has not publicly confirmed the number of pilots assassinated, though the Pentagon spokesperson Rob Lodewick said in a statement to The Hill Friday that the Defense Department said it was aware of several Taliban-claimed killings of Afghan pilots. Additionally, the Tajikistan government said Wednesday that it had taken in more than 1,000 Afghan civilians who had fled violence between the Taliban and Afghan forces.

Source: The North Africa Journal July 09, 2021 19:43 UTC