Taliban test Afghan, U.S. resolve in attacks
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban have opened an offensive on the southern Afghan city of Lashkar Gah, overrunning some of its surrounding security checkpoints and largely cutting it off, even as their negotiators remained at the table for talks with the Afghan government that appear stalled.
While the insurgent attempt to cap the fighting season with highprofile attacks before winter sets in was not unusual for recent years of the two-decade war, the run for a provincial capital amid peace talks suggested that the Taliban still see military bullying as their most effective negotiating tactic.
The attack also appeared to test the limits of how far the U.S. military — which is drawing down to about 4,500 troops and significantly cutting back air support to Afghan forces since it signed a deal with the Taliban in February — would go to defend its Afghan allies.
The United States has been critical of the Taliban’s intensified attacks across Afghanistan but has stopped short of calling the group’s actions a breach of their agreement — even as the American troop withdrawal has continued.
In recent weeks, confusing signals from Washington that President Donald Trump wanted the remaining American troops home before next spring, as laid out in the withdrawal timeline agreed with the Taliban, threatened to further undermine the shaky Afghan government.
In what appeared an attempt to send a clear message to the Taliban and reassure the Afghan forces of continued American support, the U.S. military said it had carried out “several targeted strikes” in defense of the Afghan forces under fire from the Taliban in Helmand province, of which Lashkar Gah is the capital.
“The Taliban need to immediately stop their offensive actions in Helmand province and reduce their violence around the country,” said Gen. Austin Miller, commander of the U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. “It is not consistent with the U.S.-Taliban agreement and undermines the ongoing Afghan Peace Talks.”
The Taliban’s social media accounts were drumming up the offensive as an effort to take Lashkar Gah, with some accounts posting “minute by minute” updates of what was described as the group’s march on the city.
But late Monday, their official spokesman seemed to walk a tight-line that appeared to suggest they were holding back.
The spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said the insurgents were only recapturing areas that were once under their control but that were retaken by Afghan forces several months ago.
The peace talks between the Taliban and a delegation representing the Afghan republic opened last month to much hype in Doha, the capital of Qatar, where the Taliban keep a political office.
But progress has been slow, and a month later both sides are stuck on finalizing rules and regulations that will govern their meetings.
The Taliban are demanding that the rules for the negotiations clearly lay out that the insurgents are sitting down with the Afghan government only as part of their agreement with the United States.
The insurgents’ stubborn refusal of anything short of that is sending a clear message, Afghan and Western officials say: that the Taliban do not see the Afghan government as equals in negotiations, but rather as a subset of the U.S. military occupation that is ending.
It was unclear how the deadlock could be broken. But Western and Afghan officials said that much depended on how the United States used its leverage to push the sides to a compromise.