US commander claims Taliban secretly talking to Kabul

A United States military official has claimed that some “leaders” of the Taliban group are involved in negotiations with the Afghan government largely “off the stage,” even as the group keeps launching deadly attacks in Afghanistan.

“A number of channels of dialog have opened up between the various stakeholders in the peace process,” said US Army General John Nicholson, the top American military commander in Afghanistan, on Wednesday.

He was speaking from his office in the Afghan capital, Kabul, via video conference to officials at the Pentagon.

He said he could not provide the names of the specific Taliban members since the contacts were being pursued confidentially in a bid to improve the likelihood of advancing to actual peace negotiations. He merely said “mid-level, senior-level Taliban leaders” were engaged in the alleged talks with Kabul.

There was no confirmation from the Afghan government.

Nicholson also said that unspecified international organizations, foreign governments, and other interested parties were also involved in the negotiations.

He also questioned both the Taliban and the Afghan government’s capability to subdue the other one.

Taliban’s five-year rule over at least three quarters of Afghanistan came to an end when the US and its allies invaded the Asian country on October 7, 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban regime from power, and ever since, the group has been involved in widespread militancy, killing thousands of civilians and Afghan and American forces and displacing tens of thousands of people across the country.

Back in February, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani called on the Taliban to join peace talks “without preconditions,” even as he called on the outfit to recognize the Afghan government. He also said that his government would provide passports and issue visas to Taliban members and their families and open an office for them in Kabul and promised to work to remove international sanctions against Taliban leaders.

PressTV-Afghan president offers direct talks with Taliban

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has offered the Taliban militant group to join peace talks “without preconditions.”

But the Taliban left that offer without a reply, making an offer of their own to talk to the US, instead.

Still later, they threatened that they would be looking out for US forces to “kill” or “capture.”

PressTV-Taliban ‘to focus on killing, capturing’ US forces

The Taliban militant group in Afghanistan announces the start of its so-called spring offensive, saying it will look out for US forces to “kill” or “capture.”

The militant group said the presence of American bases in Afghanistan “sabotages all chances of peace” and was “prolonging the ongoing war,” which is also the longest in the US history.

The group has engaged in increased fighting in recent weeks.

Last week, the Taliban issued a warning to Kabul residents to stay away from “military bases” since they were planning to carry out more attacks on “the enemy’s military and intelligence centers.”

On Wednesday, Taliban militants attacked a police station in southern Afghanistan.

Nicholson, the US commander in Afghanistan, sought to downplay the recent attacks, describing the Taliban’s situation as “talking and fighting” and claiming that the overall rate of the attacks had decreased. To make that case, he reportedly offered data that he acknowledged was heavily based on estimates by the Afghan government — which the US itself has long considered unreliable.

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