US deploys more air power to cover Afghanistan withdrawal as fighting rages The Pentagon said the militants are currently launching some 80 to 120 attacks on Afghan government targets each day. Credit: Jim Huylebroek/The New York Times America has deployed more combat jets to cover the withdrawal of its last troops from Afghanistan as the US pullout forges on amid heavy Taliban assaults on Afghan forces. As they leave, the Americans are carefully stripping once-busy military sites of anything of value, a clear sign that soon the Afghans will be on their own. At Kandahar Airfield in the south of the country, there is almost nothing left of what was once a wartime city, with its famous and much derided boardwalk that housed snack shops, chain restaurants, a hockey rink and trinket stores.