Pompeo urges Kabul, Taliban cooperation after 'appalling' attack
13 May, 2020
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday (May 12) urged the Afghan government and Taliban to cooperate after grisly attacks on a maternity hospital and a funeral dealt a blow to US efforts to get rid of the war.
Pompeo called the twin assaults "appalling" but noted that the Taliban, who signed a Feb 29 accord with america in his presence, denied responsibility.
"The Taliban and the Afghan government should cooperate to bring the perpetrators to justice," Pompeo said in a statement.
"As long as there is absolutely no sustained decrease in violence and insufficient progress towards a negotiated political settlement, Afghanistan will stay susceptible to terrorism."
The Islamic State group, which includes jostled with the Taliban for influence, claimed responsibility for the attack on the authorities officer's funeral in eastern Afghanistan that killed at least 24 people.
The extremist movement made no reference to the raid on a healthcare facility in Kabul that killed 14 people, including nurses and newborns.
President Donald Trump has been eager to end America's longest war and commenced pulling troops following the Leap Year accord with the Taliban, who decided to reduce violence and not target Western forces, although they have kept attacking Afghan troops.
Following latest bloodbath, President Ashraf Ghani ordered security forces to resume offensive procedures against the Taliban along with other insurgents.
The forces of the internationally backed government have been observing a unilateral posture of only reacting defensively to Taliban attacks.
The US military clarified that it could not join the Kabul government and keep observing its truce with the Taliban.
"THE UNITED STATES military will continue steadily to conduct defensive strikes against the Taliban when they attack our (Afghan) partners," said Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Campbell, a Pentagon spokesman.
"This is going to be considered a windy, bumpy road, but a political agreement is a good way to get rid of the war," he said, quoting a recent statement by Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
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