U.S. not to stop putting pressure on Taliban: Pentagon

Beijing. Jul 4. Silkroadnews - The US will not stop exerting military pressure on the Taliban, trying to get them to sit down for the talks with the government in Kabul, the Afghan Telegraph Agency (AfTAG) reports.
“Our purpose in Afghanistan remains to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a safe haven from which terrorist groups can plan and execute attacks on the United States or our allies and citizens abroad. To accomplish this, we continue to support Afghanistan and train, advise and assists its military and police forces,” the Pentagon’s report on the situation in Afghanistan says.
As John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, earlier stressed, 59 out of 407 districts in Afghanistan were fully controlled or influenced by the Taliban as of January 31, 2018. He also noted, the number of Afghan army and police forces has decreased by 36 thousand militaries to 296 thousand militaries over the past year.
At present there are 15.5 thousand U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan. The military operation in the country, started on October 7, 2001, and costed Washington $680 billion, the estimates by Pentagon show. During this time, there have been 2,35 thousand U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan and more than 20,000 militaries have been injured.