US resumes airstrikes against the Taliban
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The United States military conducted airstrikes against Taliban forces in Afghanistan yesterday, a military spokesman said, days after signing an ambitious peace deal with the militant group in Qatar.
US military spokesman Colonel Sonny Leggett said the strike was the first against the militants in 11 days. He called the attack a response to a Taliban assault on Afghan government forces in Nahr-e Saraj in the southern Helmand province.
Leggett said Taliban forces launched 43 attacks on Afghan troops in Helmand on Tuesday. According to a spokesman for the province鈥檚 governor, Omer Zwak, at least two police officers were killed and one wounded in the Washir district of southern Helmand.
Leggett called on the Taliban to stop the attacks and uphold their commitments based on the agreement signed on February 29 between their leaders and US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, which lays out a conditions-based path to the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan.
President Donald Trump confirmed that he spoke on the phone to a Taliban leader, making him the first US president believed to have ever spoken directly with the militant group responsible for the deaths of thousands of US troops in nearly 19 years of fighting in Afghanistan.
The Afghan Defense Ministry said a Taliban attack on a checkpoint in northern Kunduz Province killed seven soldiers while ten Taliban fighters were also killed.
Kandahar police spokesman Jamal Naser Barekzai said one police officer was killed and one wounded in a string of Taliban attacks across the province.
The Taliban have not claimed responsibility for any of these attacks or commented on yesterday鈥檚 US airstrike. However, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said a week鈥檚 reduction in violence that began on February 21 had ended.
Based on the US-Taliban deal, peace negotiations between the warring Afghan sides are scheduled to begin March 10. However, the Afghan government has already rejected releasing Taliban prisoners ahead of the talks, a precondition the militants say was part of the US agreement.
Leggett said US forces are responsible for defending their Afghan allies based on agreements between US and Afghan governments.
Trump has touted the Doha deal as a way to end the bloody, 19-year US military presence in Afghanistan, coinciding with his re-election campaign.
Under terms of the deal, US and other foreign forces will withdraw from Afghanistan within 14 months, subject to Taliban security guarantees and a pledge by the insurgents to hold talks with the national government in Kabul.
The agreement also includes a commitment to exchange 5,000 Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government in return for 1,000 captives 鈥 something the militants have cited as a prerequisite for talks but that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has refused to do prior to negotiations. Trump has said the Taliban and US both 鈥渉ave a very common interest鈥 to end the war.
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