Taliban strike Afghan army bases, throwing peace talks into doubt
04 March, 2020
The Taliban completed greater than a dozen attacks on Afghan army bases, officials said Tuesday (Mar 3), hours after ending a partial truce and throwing into doubt peace talks between Kabul and the insurgents.
The intra-Afghan negotiations are because of begin March 10 according to a US-Taliban offer signed in Doha on Saturday, but a dispute over a prisoner swap has raised questions about if they will go ahead.
The agreement carries a commitment for the Taliban release a up to at least one 1,000 prisoners and for the Afghan government to free around 5,000 insurgent captives - something the militants have cited as a prerequisite for talks but which President Ashraf Ghani has refused to accomplish before negotiations start.
The row has highlighted the tough road ahead, with the Taliban's decision to end a partial truce Monday complicating matters further.
A good defence ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP of overnight attacks on federal government forces in 13 of the country's 34 provinces.
Two soldiers were killed in another of the episodes that happened in southern Kandahar province, a authorities statement said.
An attack on Logar province near Kabul - that was not contained in the defence ministry official's tally - killed five security forces, the provincial governor's spokesman Didar Lawang told AFP.
The halt to the limited truce, which started out on February 22, ends what was a welcome reprieve for ordinary Afghans who have born the brunt of the deadly violence.
But experts said the move was first unsurprising seeing as both sides look for to exploit whatever leverage they hold to force the other's hand.
"Of lessons violence will go up, was bound to occur. no surprise Ghani balking on prisoner launching: 1 of his few levers," Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, tweeted.
Kabul-based analyst Ahmad Saeedi told AFP the uptick in attacks reflected the insurgents' belief that "they must keep carefully the battlefield hot to be able to win about the negotiating table, as they did with the Americans".
"SO FAR, SO EXCELLENT"
Ghani's government the other day sent a delegation to Qatar to open "first contacts" with the insurgents but Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen on Tuesday said the militants wouldn't normally encounter Kabul's representatives except to discuss the let go of their captives.
Apparent differences between your Doha arrangement and a joint US-Afghan declaration released on Afghanistan underline the obstacles facing negotiators.
The US-Taliban deal focused on the release of prisoners as the Kabul document only required both sides to determine "the feasibility of releasing" captives.
In a statement, the UN's Afghanistan mission needed "continued lowered violence to keep & enhance an environment conducive to the start of intra-Afghan negotiations".
Because the deal signing, the Taliban have already been publicly claiming "victory" over the united states.
Speaking to Fox News, US Secretary of Express Mike Pompeo played down the militants' comments.
"So I've seen plenty of remarks. Just watch what really happens. Give less attention to statements, pay less focus on things persons say," Pompeo said.
"Watch what takes place on the floor. There's been a whole lot of function done at detailed amounts about how precisely this will proceed. Up to now, so good."
Under the conditions of the offer, foreign forces will quit Afghanistan within 14 weeks, subject to Taliban protection guarantees and a pledge by the insurgents to hold talks with Kabul.
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