BackUS strikes Taliban fighters in air raid
The air raid is the first in 11 days It came in response to insurgent attack on Afghan forces
PremiumNEW DELHI: The US has struck Taliban fighters in an air raid for the first time in 11 days in response to an insurgent attack on Afghan forces in southern Helmand province on Wednesday, news reports quoting American military spokesman.
This comes hours after a conversation between US President Donald Trump and Taliban leader Mullah Baradar Akhund on Tuesday, the first known conversation between a US leader and a Taliban official.
It also puts a question mark over a US-Taliban deal signed on Saturday.
"The US conducted an airstrike on March 4 against Taliban fighters in Nahr-e Saraj, Helmand, who were actively attacking an #ANDSF checkpoint. This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack," US Forces-Afghanistan spokesman Sonny Leggett said in a Twitter post.
The telephone conversation came three days after Baradar and US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad signed an agreement in Qatar for withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.
The deal is seen as a step towards ending the US’ more than 18-year stay in Afghanistan after the launch of the war on terrorism in 2001. A troop withdrawal would boost Trump’s bid for a second term as US president in the November elections given that he has made a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan a priority.
The US-Taliban pact signed on 29 February calls for a phased withdrawal of US-led foreign forces from Afghanistan if the Taliban keeps its commitments. The US currently has about 13,000 troops in Afghanistan with the US president saying at a news conference in New Delhi on 25 February that he would bring down the number to 8,600 after the deal was signed. The US and the Taliban had also agreed that the latter would start the intra-Afghan dialogue on 10 March.
However, with Afghan president Abdul Ghani refusing to set free 5,000 Taliban prisoners as per the US-Taliban accord, the deal hit a roadblock, according to news reports.
Other news reports said the Taliban had on Monday said that a seven-day cessation of hostilities it had observed ahead of signing the pact with the US, had come to an end with the Taliban not targeting foreign forces but the Afghan defence personnel.
According to Reuters news agency, Trump told reporters that he had a “very good conversation with the leader of the Taliban".
“They’re looking to get this ended, and we’re looking to get it ended... the relationship is very good that I have with the Mullah. We had a good, long conversation today," he said.
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