The U.S. military says the Taliban have violated the Afghan government’s cease-fire at least 38 times apart from a brief three-day period when it honored the truce that coincided with the Muslim religious holiday of Eid.
“There have been 38 instances where the Afghan Air Force has been airborne and conducted self-defense strikes in support of their ANA forces on the ground,” Brig. Gen. Lance Bunch told reporters at the Pentagon Wednesday. “So 38 instances where the Taliban didn’t honor the cease-fire and took offensive action, and the Afghan national forces or the Afghan Air Force was there to help out.”
Neither the U.S. nor the Afghan government has launched offensive strikes against the Taliban since June 11, in a bid to try to change the dynamic and lure the Taliban into peace talks.
“The entire purpose behind our air campaign is to pressure the Taliban into reconciliation, and help them realize that peace talks are their best option,” said Bunch, a vice commander with Operation Resolute Support.
For the three days the Taliban honored the cease-fire, the streets of Kabul were filled with remarkable scenes of Taliban and Afghan citizens hugging, dancing, taking selfies, and praying together.
“Now that the Afghan people have had a taste of that peace, their calls for a lasting peace have multiplied across the country and been heard worldwide, increasing pressure on the Taliban to reconcile,” Bunch said in the latest upbeat assessment from U.S. commanders.
Bunch says during the pause in offensive operations, the U.S. is focusing on continuing to train Afghan pilots and maintainers, as well as gathering targeting intelligence to be ready to strike quickly if the cease-fire is declared over. “Unless the Taliban join the government of Afghanistan in negotiations in extending the cease-fire, we will continue to pursue them and their illicit revenue streams at every turn.”
In an opinion piece in the New York Times, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani revealed that he extended the cease-fire by 10 days after meeting in secret with peace activists who had walked more than 400 miles to Kabul from Helmand province.
“Among their demands were the extension of the cease-fire with the Taliban, establishing an address for peace negotiations that is representative of all Afghan ethnic groups and providing security guarantees for Taliban after reconciliation,” Ghani wrote. “I accepted their demands, extended the government’s cease-fire for 10 more days, and announced that I will sit and negotiate with the Taliban’s leader, Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, anywhere he wants.”
The U.S. says if the Taliban don’t take up Ghani on his offer to negotiate without preconditions, airstrikes targeting the group’s illicit drugs and other revenue sources will resume.
“They cannot hold ground, and they are taking lots of casualties. And they’ve resorted all the way back to just hitting disparate checkpoints or remote district centers, all of which is not a winning strategy,” Bunch said.
