The US military announced today, Wednesday, that it launched air strikes against the "Taliban" movement in Afghanistan, 4 days after the signing of a peace agreement between Washington and the movement in Qatar, and hours after a phone call is the first of its kind between the President of the United States and a leader in the Taliban.
The strike came in the wake of a Taliban attack on an Afghan army headquarters in Kunduz province, on Tuesday night Wednesday, in which 20 soldiers were killed. A spokesman for the American forces in Afghanistan, Sonny Legate, confirmed that air strikes were launched against the Taliban in Afghanistan after the movement´s attacks against military and other Afghan police sites. The spokesman stressed, in statements reported by the American "Al-Hurra" channel, the United States´ commitment to the peace process, adding that Washington "has a responsibility to defend its partners in Afghanistan." Legate called on the Taliban to stop launching "unnecessary attacks and to fulfill their obligations." US President Donald Trump had made a phone call to Taliban leader Mullah Pradar, according to what the armed movement announced on Tuesday, days after Washington signed a historic agreement with the movement. Trump, on the other hand, told reporters at the White House, "In fact, I had a very good conversation with the Taliban leader", without mentioning the name of Pradar, who leads the political movement that led the talks before signing the historic agreement. The 35-minute call, which the movement said took place around 1440 GMT, the day after the Taliban ended a partial truce, casts doubts about peace talks between Kabul and the rebels, which are set to begin on March 10. The text of the phone call, released by the Taliban, said that Pradar had urged Trump to "take firm steps regarding the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan." On February 29, the Qatari capital, Doha, witnessed an agreement between the United States and the Taliban, paving the way, with a timetable, for a gradual withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan. The agreement stipulated that the number of troops be reduced from about 13 thousand to 8,600 military personnel within 135 days. It also provided for the release of up to 5,000 "Taliban" prisoners, compared to up to 1,000 prisoners from the Afghan government by March 10. However, the Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani, objected to the issue of releasing the prisoners as a condition for starting direct talks between Kabul and the Taliban, and said that "there is no commitment" from his government to release 5,000 prisoners from the "Taliban" movement, and this "is not from the authority of the United States but rather the authority of Afghan government. " In response, the Taliban announced that they would resume their combat operations against government forces, after they committed to a 7-day "violence reduction" agreement, last week. Sohail Shaheen, the Taliban´s political spokesman, also confirmed to Anatolia that direct talks between Afghans would only begin after the release of the movement´s prisoners. -
