In the first phase, the United States announced that it would downsize to 8,600 within 135 days (Representation)
Kabul:
The United States has said its historic agreement with the Taliban has entered the “next phase” while urging activists to curb the mounting violence even as insurgents accused US forces of violating the agreement on Tuesday.
The two sides signed an agreement in February that saw Washington pledge to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by the middle of next year, in return for insurgents promising to hold talks with the Afghan government to put end of the long-running conflict.
In the first phase, the United States announced that it would downsize to 8,600 within 135 days, while completely withdrawing forces from five military bases.
On the 135th day, the US special representative in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated the deal for Washington, tweeted that the two sides had reached a “milestone.”
“The United States has worked hard to complete the first phase of its commitments under the agreement, including reducing the troops and leaving five bases,” he said on Monday.
As the agreement enters its “next phase”, Washington’s approach would be based on certain conditions, warned Khalilzad.
“We will press for the prisoners to be released, the reduction of violence … and the start and progress of intra-Afghan negotiations,” he said.
The Taliban hailed the reduction in US forces on Tuesday, but said US troops had frequently bombed non-combat zones and “offensives” in support of the Kabul government.
He also accused American pilots of carrying out air strikes against civilians, the Taliban and public infrastructure in the past 10 days.
“These are all gross violations of the agreement and a deliberate attempt to provoke the mujahideen into large-scale attacks,” said the Taliban.
“Violence is high”
Since the agreement, the Taliban have stepped up attacks killing hundreds of people, officials said.
Khalilzad condemned the attacks, saying that “a large number” of Afghans continued to die without reason, while admitting that no American had been killed since the agreement.
“Violence has been high, especially in recent days and weeks,” said Khalilzad, condemning a Taliban attack on Monday on a rural office of the Afghan intelligence agency that killed 11 security personnel.
“The attack by the Taliban (…) contradicts their commitment to reduce violence until a permanent ceasefire is reached in the intra-Afghan talks.”
Washington’s top diplomat in Kabul, Ross Wilson, also criticized the Taliban for Monday’s attack in the northern city of Aybak.
“This attack in a provincial capital is an escalation that violates the understanding of our agreement with the Taliban to reduce violence and minimize civilian casualties,” he wrote on Twitter.
The Afghan intelligence agency warned of “reprisal attacks” against the Taliban and said they were not fulfilling their obligations under the United States agreement.
“The group plans and conducts attacks with the cooperation of foreign terrorist groups, including the Al Qaeda network,” the National Security Directorate said on Tuesday.
As part of the US-Taliban agreement, the insurgents agreed to prevent Al-Qaeda from using Afghanistan as a refuge to organize attacks.
But in the months that followed, the Taliban continued to work with Al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent (AQIS), a Pentagon report said earlier this month.
“Civilian losses”
President Donald Trump, who is running for re-election in November, has repeatedly said that he wants to end the longest-running U.S. war in the shortest possible time.
Peace talks between the Taliban and Kabul are based on an almost completed prisoner exchange agreed to in the agreement with the United States.
To date, the government has released more than 4,000 Taliban detainees, while insurgents have released more than 600 Afghan security personnel.
The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission said in a report Tuesday that in the first half of this year, 1,213 civilians were killed and 1,744 others injured in 880 incidents across the country .
He said the numbers showed an 11% drop from the first half of 2019.
The Taliban accounted for 48.5% of civilian casualties, while 15.5% was attributed to government forces.
(This story has not been edited by GalacticGaming staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
