U.S. halts offensive efforts in bid for Afghan peace deal

KABUL, Afghanistan — The United States has ceased offensive military operations against the Taliban in accordance with an agreement to reduce violence ahead of a possible peace deal, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan announced Saturday.

Gen. Scott Miller told reporters in Kabul that “our operations are defensive at this point. We stopped our offensive operations as part of our obligations, but we remain committed to defend our forces.”

The agreement, which took effect Friday, calls for an end to attacks around the country, including roadside bombings, suicide attacks and rocket strikes involving Taliban, Afghan and U.S. forces.

If successfully implemented, the weeklong “reduction in violence” agreement will be followed by the signing of a

peace accord next Saturday. That accord would wrap up the 18-year war and begin to fulfill one of President Donald Trump’s main campaign promises — to bring U.S. troops in Afghanistan home.

U.S. and Afghan officials have cautioned that the deal is fragile, as there are many armed groups in Afghanistan that don’t see peace as being in their interest. But U.S. officials said there are monitoring mechanisms in place to identify whether attacks are the work of “spoilers.”

Hours after the agreement went into effect, local security forces reported a number of clashes between government and Taliban forces. But Miller and senior Afghan officials said the violence does not necessarily constitute a breach of the agreement.

Standing beside Afghanistan’s acting minister of interior and acting minister of defense, Miller described the reduction in violence as a “trial period” during which U.S. and Afghan government forces reserve the right to defend themselves if attacked.

“This is a conditional effort,” he said. “It’s a trial period. We are all looking at this to see that all sides are able to meet their obligations.”

EVALUATING VIOLATIONS

In a country that has been wracked by violence for more than 18 years, determining whether the agreement has been violated will be a tough task.

“The reason this is a challenge is this is a very decentralized insurgency,” said Seth Jones, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and an Afghanistan expert. “There are going to be a lot of opportunities for any militia commander, element of the Taliban, the Haqqani network, and other local forces who don’t want to see a deal, to conduct violence.”

The Haqqani network is an insurgent group linked to the Taliban.

According to one defense official, attacks will be reviewed on a “case-by-case” basis.

Jones said the U.S. military has tried to get a good layout of where all the insurgent groups are operating so it will be able to determine where any attack comes from and who likely was responsible. And U.S. military officials said they were prepared and ready to make quick assessments.

The Taliban issued a statement late Friday saying their military council has instructed commanders and governors to stop all attacks against foreign and Afghan forces. The council has a web of commanders and shadow governors across the country.

However, in central Afghanistan, the spokesman for Paktia province’s governor said Taliban attacks on government outposts lasted for more than an hour after the violence-reduction agreement went into effect. In the north, a security official in Balkh province reported coordinated Taliban attacks on government outposts. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Acting Defense Minister Asadullah Khalid said overall violence has reduced since the agreement went into effect. He said the attacks that have occurred “are not serious, [except] for one attack in Balkh.”

“We are working to find out its cause,” he added, referring to the Balkh attack. “Maybe the message was not sent to them [The Taliban] on time or whatever the cause may be. It will become clear.”

Khalid said Afghan forces have the right to defend themselves.

The Taliban, meanwhile, appeared to defend the handful of clashes that occurred after the violence-reduction agreement began.

“Taliban have not announced a cease-fire with the U.S., but reduction in violence during the said period,” Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said in a statement released to journalists Saturday.

“Every attack or fire of Taliban should not be considered as violation, as this is not a cease-fire,” Mujahid insisted.

The U.S. will continue to have surveillance aircraft and other assets overhead to monitor events and help to determine who is responsible for any attack.

One senior U.S. official also said that the U.S., Afghans and Taliban will have a channel through which they will be able to discuss any issues that arise.

Another U.S. official said that communications among the parties will allow the Taliban, for example, to quickly deny involvement with an attack. But in all cases, officials said, the U.S. military — led by Miller — will be responsible for investigating incidents and figuring out who is at fault.

The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the private negotiations.

Once Miller reaches a conclusion, officials said, it will be up to the White House and State Department to make a final determination about whether an attack constitutes a violation of the truce and whether it is enough to affect the peace deal.

The Pentagon has made it clear that U.S. troops may continue to conduct operations against Islamic State and al-Qaida militants as needed. But officials also noted that all sides want the peace agreement to be successful, so they will try to avoid anything that might scuttle it.

TROOP REDUCTION

The Pentagon has said for months that it is poised to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to 8,600 from the current number of more than 12,000. That reduction is likely to be triggered once the peace agreement is finalized, but officials said Friday that it could take several months for any troop cuts to begin.

In exchange, the Taliban have pledged to begin intra-Afghan talks and to refrain from harboring terrorists with the intent to attack the West.

These sensitive security agreements are going into effect against the backdrop of a deepening political crisis in Afghanistan. After disputed election results, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s main rival has threatened to forcefully replace governors in the country’s north as part of his efforts to form a government.

The United Nations issued a statement expressing “concern” over the developments. “Resorting to force or any other unlawful means at the very time that efforts are ongoing to realize a reduction in violence … jeopardizes the population’s hope for peace,” it said.

Political divisions have the potential to upset the cohesion of armed groups allied with the Afghan government that fall outside the formal military’s structure. Political disunity, should it persist, could undermine Ghani’s efforts to form a strong, inclusive negotiating team to enter into intra-Afghan talks with the Taliban.

The agreement mapping out the plan for peace follows months of negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban that have broken down before. Both parties, however, have signaled a desire to halt the fighting that began with the U.S. invasion after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks carried out by Osama bin Laden’s Afghanistan-based al-Qaida network.

Information for this article was contributed by Susannah George, Sayed Salahuddin and Haq Nawaz Khan of The Washington Post; and by Lolita C. Baldor, Matthew Lee and Kathy Gannon of The Associated Press.