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Khan Agha has endured years of violence in Kunduz, but it surely was the Taliban’s assault on the strategic city in northeastern Afghanistan, as the federal government and insurgents had been getting ready for historic peace talks, that unnerved him.
“Like me, the majority of Kunduz residents are living in fear,” Agha, a 46-year-old driver, instructed Reuters. “Looking at what’s going on, anything could happen at any time.”
The Taliban offensive, encircling and almost seizing Kunduz late final month, got here simply weeks earlier than the Kabul authorities sat down with their sworn enemies in Doha on Saturday to begin historic talks aimed toward ending 19 years of struggle that has killed and wounded greater than 100,000 civilians.
The opening ceremony for the talks within the Qatari capital, replete with requires peace from US secretary of state Mike Pompeo in a grand resort and a number of dignitaries on video hyperlink urging a ceasefire, contrasted sharply with the latest violence on the bottom in Kunduz.
Just hours after these talks began, Taliban and Afghan authorities forces clashed throughout Afghanistan, officers stated, underscoring the uphill problem of ending the lengthy struggle. The most intense of these clashes on Saturday had been in Kunduz, the place Taliban once more jostled with safety forces for management of key highways, and the Afghan navy deployed air and artillery strikes.
Agha, stranded exterior the city of 270,000 for 4 days throughout final month’s bigger assault and unable to achieve his household on his approach again from a supply, has since stockpiled three months’ price of meals in his small dwelling.
A Reuters examination of the little-reported August offensive – the worst since 2015, when Kunduz briefly fell to the Taliban – exhibits how the insurgents have lately raised stress on this strategic city centre, a gateway within the north to mineral-rich provinces and to central Asia, and a hub for transportation and drug-smuggling.
The Taliban deny the Kunduz assault, saying their fighters solely attacked bases in retaliation for troops firing on close by areas.
“From the start of the year we never had plans of large attacks on any big city for one reason, and that is the peace process,” stated Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. “Attacking large cities can damage this process.”
Though it finally failed, the brazen try to take a strategic city centre and the persevering with stress exhibits the Taliban are pursuing a fight-and-talk technique, largely ignoring the worldwide pleas to mood the violence and agree on a ceasefire.
“The scale of ambition to expand territorial control has not ebbed,” stated a senior Western diplomat. “They want their fighters to stay active on the ground – it is a key concern ahead of talks as primary trust and confidence-building depends on a reduction in violence.”
The Taliban’s muscular motion comes simply because the United States quickly attracts down its troops in Afghanistan, in step with President Donald Trump’s guarantees to finish America’s longest struggle. A February pact between Washington and the Taliban set May 2021 because the date for the ultimate pullout, topic to sure safety ensures.
US troop numbers are anticipated to fall to 4,500 by November from over 100,000 in 2011.
Battleground to negotiating desk
“A serious Taliban attack on Kunduz City breaks with the U.S.-Taliban agreement, at least in spirit, and sends an ominous signal ahead of intra-Afghan negotiations,” stated Elizabeth Threlkeld, deputy director of the South Asia program on the Washington-based Stimson Center.
The US Embassy in Kabul didn’t remark.
The Taliban, after steadily tightening their grip on rural areas encircling Kunduz, carried out its offensive from Aug. 20 to 26, seizing a number of checkpoints and two bases on arterial roads into the city, spreading concern that the militants would seize management, three provincial council members stated.
“They got enough close to the city that their small arms could easily reach the police headquarters and governor’s compound,” stated council member Assadullah Saadat.
Fighting displaced greater than 60,000 individuals, in accordance the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Now that the federal government and Taliban are sitting down for peace talks, after months of delays, officers say a high precedence is negotiating a complete ceasefire, which the Afghan authorities has requested a number of occasions however the Taliban has rejected.
“Their military capacity represents a threat to the Afghan government, and they are likely to continue launching attacks over the coming months as negotiations kick off,” Threlkeld stated.
Afghan forces pushed Taliban fighters again with a number of airstrikes, stated defence ministry spokesman Fawad Aman. On one of many heaviest days of preventing, 34 Taliban members had been killed and 24 wounded, he stated.
More than 100 Taliban members had been killed 100 had been wounded, stated a neighborhood council member.
Though the fast menace to the city was over, native safety power members instructed Reuters the world remained below stress.
Abdul, who requested that his full title not be used, stated that in his seven years within the Afghan safety forces in a number of the hardest areas, he had not encountered the stress he present in Kunduz the place his unit was below fixed fireplace and their autos couldn’t be left within the open for even a number of hours with out attracting rockets.
“There is a common theory here: the more gain on the battleground, the bigger the share on the negotiating table,” he stated. “I have experienced the worst time of my whole life here.”
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