United States forces carried out an airstrike Wednesday on Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan just days after signing a peace deal with the militants, according to news reports citing U.S. commanders.
There was no immediate word on casualties, but 17 Taliban members have been reported killed and 11 injured within the last 24 hours, according to 1TV NewsAF, a regional news outlet which cited the Afghanistan Interior Ministry.
The Taliban broke the historic truce with the U.S. on Monday by resuming offensives against the Afghan military throughout the country in attacks that left multiple people dead and injured.
Initial reports said two Afghan Army soldiers and a police commander were among the dead after attacks in at least five locations around the country. By Wednesday, the Afghan National Security Council reported 76 Taliban attacks across 24 provinces, the deadliest of which killed 15 Afghan forces in Kunduz.
Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry reported the Taliban had carried out at least 30 attacks in 15 provinces, killing four civilians, 11 security forces personnel and injuring 18 in the last 24 hours.
Kokcha Press, another Afghan news agency, reported 36 Afghan service members had been killed at checkpoints across Kunduz, Helmand, Uruzgan and Logar provinces.
Col. Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for U.S. operations in Afghanistan, described Wednesday’s strike against the Taliban in a tweet, saying that U.S. forces sought to disrupt Taliban fighters “who were actively attacking” an Afghan National Security Forces checkpoints, according to reports by NBC News and The Hill.
Leggett said the Taliban “conducted 43 attacks” Tuesday on various checkpoints, including those throughout Helmand province.
“This was our first strike against the Taliban in 11 days,” Leggett said, according to a report in The Hill.
A day earlier, Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned the media that flare-ups between the U.S. were an inevitable part of the U.S. drawdown in Afghanistan.
“I would caution everybody to think that there’s going to be an absolute cessation of violence in Afghanistan,” he said. “That is probably not going to happen. It’s probably not going to go to zero.”
On Wednesday, Leggett echoed Milley’s words, saying Washington was committed to peace but would defend Afghan forces if necessary.
“Taliban leadership promised the [international] community they would reduce violence and not increase attacks. We call on the Taliban to stop needless attacks and uphold their commitments,” he said.
In a separate attack Tuesday, at least five people were killed and another 10 were injured in an explosion in or near a soccer stadium in Nader Shah, Afghanistan, where witnesses said a motorcycle bomb exploded. The Taliban later denied responsibility for that attack.
The troop withdrawal agreement signed Saturday says the U.S. must decrease troop levels to 8,600 in 135 days and also lays out a timeline for a full U.S. withdrawal of all 13,000 troops from Afghanistan in 14 months. The deal hinges on the Taliban living up to their commitments to ban terrorist groups from using Afghanistan's land and resources, and helping to fight the insurgents.
More talks are planned March 10 in Oslo, Norway.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump confirmed that he spoke on the phone to a Taliban leader, making him the first U.S. president believed to have ever spoken directly with the militant group, The Associated Press reported.
Trump said the United States has a shared interest with the Taliban, which harbored al-Qaida before the 9/11 attacks and is responsible for the deaths of thousands of U.S. troops in nearly 19 years of fighting in Afghanistan, the AP reported.
“We had a very good conversation with the leader of the Taliban today, and they’re looking to get this ended, and we're looking to get it ended. I think we all have a very common interest,” Trump said. “We had, actually, a very good talk with the leader of the Taliban.”
— Information provided by The Associated Press was used to supplement this report.
About the Author
