U. S. alleged Taliban violated peace accord
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN » Rockets launched at a U. S. military base and a joint U. S.- Afghan airfield in southern Afghanistan in recent weeks are believed to have been fired by the Taliban, according to three U. S. military officials, in what would amount to a clear breach of the peace agreement between the United States and the insurgent group.
Roughly a dozen rockets struck in late July around Camp Bastion, a sprawling air base used by Afghan and U. S. forces in the southern province of Helmand. And several rockets were fired within the past week or so at Camp Dwyer, a large U. S. military base about 50 miles south of Bastion.
A Taliban commander familiar with the region denied that the group had carried out any strikes on U. S. bases in Helmand and said that the group would investigate. The rocket strikes may also have been carried out by a Taliban faction that is against the agreement, according to one military official who was briefed on the matter.
There were no U. S. casualties in either attack, nor a public response from Washington during a stretch in which U. S. officials have struggled to keep an already shaky peace process on track.
The U. S.- led mission in Afghanistan also declined to comment.
Helmand province, long considered the Taliban’s heartland and its opium- fueled financial breadbasket, is predominantly controlled by the insurgent group, although well- armed drug barons and differing tribal affiliations ensure that many allegiances and agendas in the region are murky. Afghan government forces there are mostly constrained to the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, and some villages that serve as district centers.
The February peace deal signed in Doha, the capital of Qatar, stipulates that the Taliban would refrain from striking U. S. or NATO forces as they gradually withdrew from the country. And the U. S. military would attack the Taliban only to defend Afghan forces.
The Taliban, long thought to be a conglomerate of various factions with differing agendas, seem to have largely stayed true to the agreement as a unified front, at least publicly, when it comes to not attacking U. S. or coalition forces. But as the Taliban have continued to mount heavy assaults against the Afghan military forces, the United States has carried out dozens of airstrikes to help the Afghans, officials say.
Another sticking point is the Taliban’s reluctance to condemn al- Qaeda, the terrorist group that carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and was harbored by the Taliban. A clearly defined tenet of the Feb. 29 peace agreement calls for the Taliban to sever all ties with alQaeda before the total withdrawal of U. S. troops. Pentagon officials believe that al- Qaeda fighters continue to be well ingrained with Taliban rank and file.