U.S. Strikes Help Break Impasse and Restore Power to Kabul - nytimes

KABUL, Afghanistan — United States airstrikes have helped to break a bloody impasse between Afghan troops and Taliban militants north of Kabul, allowing repair crews to reach downed power lines and restore electricity to the capital after more than three weeks of disruption, an Afghan official said on Tuesday.

The transmission lines connecting Kabul to hydroelectric generators in Uzbekistan were first cut on Jan. 27, depriving the capital of its most important supply of electricity. The government accused the Talibanof destroying pylons that support the cables, though the militants denied doing so.

What was not in doubt was that the repair crews could not reach the area because of mines, booby traps and fighting between the Taliban and a large Afghan National Army force that was sent last month to reclaim the area from insurgent control.

To break the impasse, American aircraft began striking Taliban positions in the Dand-e-Ghori area of Baghlan Province, north of Kabul, driving the insurgents away, said Col. Abdul Rashid Bashir, the provincial deputy police chief. A spokesman for the United States military in Afghanistan, Col. Michael T. Lawhorn, said he had no information about American airstrikes in the area.

Power to Kabul and other affected regions was restored late Monday.

The supply of electricity to the capital by Afghanistan’s national power company, known as DABS, is never enough to meet demand, even at the best of times. But the loss of the Uzbek lines, and a separate attack that cut the electrical supply from Tajikistan, had left much of the capital without power through several winter weeks.

The United States’ action ensured that the lights were on in Kabul in time for a meeting on Tuesday of a four-nation group that is working to restart the Afghan peace process. The so-called Quadrilateral Coordination Group, made up of diplomats from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States, issued a statement after the discussions inviting the Taliban and other antigovernment groups to meet with representatives of President Ashraf Ghani in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, by the first week of March. - Read More at the NYT

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