Zia Sarhadi
Alarmed that the troops withdrawal deal signed with the Taliban on February 29 could unravel as parts of the agreement are not being implemented amid rising violence, US forces commander in Afghanistan General Scott Miller rushed to Doha to hold talks with the Taliban.
“General Miller met with Taliban leadership last night [Friday April 10] as part of the military channel established in the agreement,” a spokesman for US Forces in Afghanistan told Reuters.
“The meeting was about the need to reduce the violence,” he said.
The Taliban have accused US forces of breaching the agreement by carrying out attacks against the Taliban as well as Afghan civilians.
The latest acts of aggression were US drone strikes against innocent civilians in Sala area between Shawalikot district of Kandahar provinces and Maizana district of Zabul province and in Badakhshan province.
Both attacks were carried out on Friday April 10 resulting in three civilians being martyred in each locality.
The Taliban resistance movement condemned the attacks pointing out these were in clear violation of the deal.
In Kandahar, the US drone bombed the compound of Sardar Muhammad resulting in his martyrdom and that of his son and daughter, according to a report carried by alemarahenglish, the Taliban’s official website.
The Taliban further stated that there had been no military activity by the group in this area for years.
The US drone strike was a cold-blooded murder of innocent civilians.
On April 7, the Taliban had walked out of talks with a committee established by the US-puppet regime headed by Ashraf Ghani in Kabul.
Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Taliban’s office in Qatar, said on Twitter on Tuesday April 7 that the Taliban technical team would not participate in what he described as “fruitless meetings.”
Shaheen said the release of Taliban prisoners was being “delayed under one pretext or another.”
The prisoner exchange was supposed to have been completed by March 10.
The deal clearly stipulated the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for 1,000 Afghan government forces.
Instead, the Kabul regime has so far released only 200 Taliban prisoners in batches of 100 on April 8 and 9 respectively.
The Taliban made a major concession by agreeing to hold talks with the Kabul regime without all the prisoners being released as required under the February 29 deal.
But when the Kabul regime refused to release the 15 Taliban commanders in the first batch as demanded by the resistance movement, their representatives left Kabul.
Miller’s dash to Doha, Qatar where the Taliban maintain a political office, was to prevent the deal from collapsing.
The spokesman for the movement’s political office in Doha said on Twitter that the meeting with Miller discussed the implementation of the agreement including not attacking Afghan civilians or Taliban fighters.
Meanwhile, US and Nato occupation forces came under attack at Bagram airbase on April 9 when five rockets were fired.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack but the occupation forces said they had suffered no casualties.
Whether Miller was successful in his mission to Doha was not immediately clear.
The fact that he had to dash to Doha to meet the Taliban’s representatives indicates that the resistance movement has the upperhand.
If the occupation forces continue to violate the agreement, the Taliban may be forced to abandon the deal and resume attacks.
That would make life incredibly difficult for US and Nato forces and lead to their further humiliation.
