Pompeo to Taliban: Demonstrate capacity to reduce violence

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has demanded “demonstrable evidence” from the Taliban that they have the capacity to reduce violence before signing a deal to end America's longest war, even though official military figures show that in the last quarter of 2019 the US dropped a record number of bombs in the country since 2013.

Pompeo said on Monday that a deal is close but that the US and Taliban have been close before and failed because the militant group was unable to demonstrate that they were committed to reducing violence, The Associated Press reported.

“We’re working on a peace and reconciliation plan, putting the commas in the right place, getting the sentences right,” he said while speaking at a news conference in Afghanistan’s neighbor, Uzbekistan. “We got close once before to having an agreement: a piece of paper that we mutually executed and the Taliban were unable to demonstrate either their will or capacity or both to deliver on a reduction in violence.”

“So, what we are demanding now is demonstrable evidence of their will and capacity to reduce violence, to take down the threat, so the inter-Afghan talks ... will have a less violent context,” he said. “We’re hopeful we can achieve that but we’re not there yet, and work certainly remains.”

US special representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad told Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul last week there has been “no notable progress” in talks with the Taliban in ending the nearly 19-year war.

Afghanistan: Remains of US servicemen killed in crash recovered

The United States has recovered the remains of individuals from a US military aircraft that crashed in Afghanistan.

Last week, a US military plane crashed in eastern Afghanistan, in Ghazni province, an area with a strong Taliban presence. The Taliban claimed responsibility for downing the aircraft.

“A special aircraft of the American occupant was flying in the area, for the purpose of an intelligence mission in the Sado Khail region of Deh Yak district of Ghazni province,” said Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. “Our mujahideen have taken down (the aircraft) tactically.”

He added that all crew members and passengers, including several senior CIA officers, were killed, Mujahid added, and the wreckage and bodies remain at the crash site. The US later on recovered the remains of individuals died in the crash.

Meanwhile, a US government watchdog has announced a surge in violent attacks in its war in Afghanistan, saying they climbed to record levels in the last quarter of 2019.

"Enemy-initiated attacks" rose sharply last year, with the fourth quarter seeing a total of 8,204 attacks -- up from 6,974 in the same period in 2018, said the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) in a Friday statement.

US dropped record number of bombs on Afghanistan in 2019

Figures released by US central command show that US warplanes dropped a record number of bombs on Afghanistan in 2019.

Attacks dropped earlier in the year but picked up again after US President Donald Trump called off talks with the Taliban near Washington after an American officer was killed in Afghanistan.

The Taliban and the US had been negotiating the deal for a year, and were on the brink of an announcement in September 2019 when President Trump abruptly declared the process "dead".

Talks were later restarted between the two sides in December in Qatar, but were suspended again following an attack near the Bagram military base in Afghanistan, which is run by the US.

Washington has for weeks been calling on the militants to reduce attacks on US forces, posing it as a condition for resuming formal negotiations on an agreement that would see US troops begin to leave the country after a near two-decade war.

The United States -- under Republican George W. Bush’s presidency -- and its allies invaded Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban regime from power, but after all these years the foreign troops are still deployed to the country.

Afghanistan is once again the focus of the ‘Great Game’: Scholar

“Afghanistan is once again the focus of the ‘Great Game,’ now in its 21st-century iteration,” American political analyst Dennis Etler has said.

After becoming the president in 2008, President Barack Obama, a Democrat, vowed to end the Afghan war -- one of the longest conflicts in US history – but he failed to keep his promise.

Trump, who has spoken against the Afghan war, has dubbed the 2001 invasion and following occupation of Afghanistan as "Obama's war".

But Trump has also announced to deploy thousands of more troops to the war-torn country, signaling a policy shift.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk