Will hit Taliban harder than ever, vows Trump
9/11 ANNIVERSARY America remembers 18th year of deadly terror attacks
WASHINGTON:US President Donald Trump pledged to hit the Taliban “harder” than ever as America marked the 18th anniversary on Wednesday of the 9/11 attacks that led the country into war in Afghanistan.
Trump spoke after aborting what would have been a historic peace summit and as relatives remembered the victims of the single deadliest attack on US soil at ceremonies in New York and Washington.
After a solemn commemoration at Ground Zero in Manhattan, Trump spoke at a Pentagon event honoring the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks announcing an unprecedented escalation of the military assault on the Taliban. He said that over “the last four days” US forces have “hit our enemy harder than they have ever been hit before and that will continue”.
The nature of the offensive was not immediately clear but Trump said it was ordered after he canceled peace talks with the Taliban over the weekend in retaliation for a bomb attack that killed one US soldier last week.
He also warned militants against ever carrying out an attack in the US again.
“If for any reason, they come back to our country, we will go wherever they are, and use power, the likes of which the United States has never used before,” Trump said.
“I’m not even talking about nuclear power. They will never have seen anything like what will happen to them,” he added.
The warlike comments came as al-qaeda, which carried out the attacks, released a video calling for assaults on American, European, Israeli and Russian interests. Relatives of victims, survivors, firefighters and city leaders held a ceremony Wednesday at Ground Zero where hijacked al-qaeda planes brought down the Twin Towers.
AGE OF WARMONGERING IS OVER, SAYS IRAN
The dismissal of John Bolton as US national security adviser is a recognition by the Trump administration that its policy toward Iran has been a “failure” according to a top aide to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
“The firing of Bolton after a not-so-long period shows that even the hawkish US government has come to the conclusion that the age of warmongering and intimidation is over,” said Rouhani’s chief of staff, Mahmoud Vaezi.