RFE/RLMon, 06 Apr 2020 12:45 UTC
© ReutersMembers of the Taliban delegation in Doha, Qatar
The U.S. military has rejected a claim by the Afghan Taliban that the United States is violating the terms of a peace deal signed by the two sides in late February. U.S. Forces-Afghanistan "upheld and continues to uphold the military terms of the U.S.-[Taliban] agreement; any assertion otherwise is baseless," spokesman Colonel Sonny Leggett
tweeted on April 5.Leggett also wrote that the militant group "must reduce violence" and warned that the U.S. military will continue to defend Afghanistan's security forces if attacked, in line with the terms of the agreement.
In a statement issued earlier in the day, the Taliban accused U.S. and Afghan forces of conducting raids and air strikes against the group in noncombat zones and of launching operations on civilian areas.
It also chastised the Afghan government for delaying the release of thousands of Taliban prisoners as promised in the agreement signed by the United States and the Taliban in the Qatari capital, Doha, on February 29.
The militants claim they have reduced their attacks compared with last year and warned that continued violations would create "an atmosphere of mistrust" that would "damage the agreements" and "increase the level of fighting."
The Doha deal calls for the Afghan government to release 5,000 detained Taliban fighters as a confidence-building measure ahead of formal peace talks aimed at ending the country's 18-year conflict.
The Taliban has vowed to release some 1,000 Afghan government troops and civilian workers it is holding.
Comment: Meanwhile the
chaos and killing continue, but reports wildly differ:
An airstrike in the central Afghan province of Uruzgan left at least eight civilians killed and two others critically injured in the early hours of Sunday, a source in the regional government said, adding that it was unclear if the attack was carried out by the government forces or the US-led international troops. They said the injured civilians had been taken to the Mirwais hospital in the southern city of Kandahar.
At the same time, the Uruzgan governor's spokesman, Zargai Abadi, denied there were civilian casualties in the attack. Speaking to local media, he said that the airstrike had been carried out by the Afghan government forces, adding that six militants were killed in the ambush.
The Taliban, in turn, have attributed the airstrike to the US-led international forces and condemned the attack, describing it as a breach of the recently negotiated peace deal. They also claimed a different number of casualties.
"Continuing the intrusive offensive of US occupants, last night, in the Garam Ab area of the Khas Uruzgan district of the Uruzgan province [a residential house] was attacked, resulting in five women and two children killed and eight others injured," the radical group said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Afghan Ministry of Defense has reported a separate incident that took place earlier on Sunday between the Taliban and the Afghan forces at the army checkpoints in the Arghandab district of the southern Zabul province. "As a result of the mutual assault and airstrikes by the Afghan forces, 21 Taliban militants were killed and eight motorcycles destroyed," the ministry said.
According to the Taliban, however, the attack was carried out by the army during a funeral and resulted in the death of two civilians.
Comment: Meanwhile the chaos and killing continue, but reports wildly differ: