Trump rejects talks with Taliban, Ghani wants them defeated

KABUL: Afghanistan said on Tuesday the Taliban would have to be defeated on the battlefield after US President Donald Trump rejected the idea of talks with the militants following a series of deadly attacks.

The Taliban reacted to Trump’s announcement by saying they never wanted to talk to the US anyway, but one senior member of the group said he suspected efforts would still be made to get negotiations going.

Talking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump condemned the militant group for the recent carnage in Kabul and said the US was not prepared to talk now. He pledged to “finish what we have to finish”.

His comments suggested he sees a military victory over the Taliban, an outcome hard to achieve with the resources and manpower he has authorised.

A spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said while the government had encouraged the Taliban to talk, the attacks in Kabul, including a suicide bomb attack on Saturday that killed more than 100 people, was a “red line”.

“The Taliban have crossed a red line and lost the chance for peace,” said Shah Hussain Murtazawi. “We have to look for peace on the battlefield. They have to be marginalized.”

A spokesman for the Taliban, who are fighting to oust foreign forces, defeat the Us-backed government and impose their version of Islamic rule, said they never wanted to hold peace talks with the United States anyway.

“Their main strategy is to continue war and occupation,” Zabihullah Mujahid said. PENTAGON RESTRICTS AFGHAN WAR DATA

The Pentagon has ordered an independent federal auditor to stop providing the public with key information about US war efforts in Afghanistan, accelerating a clampdown on data, such as the size of the Afghan military and police forces, that indicate how the 16-year-old stalemated war is going.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, established by Congress, revealed the new gag order in its latest three-month assessment of conditions in Afghanistan. The restrictions fly in the face of Pentagon assertions over the past year that it was striving to be more transparent about the US war campaigns across Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.