The White House condemned a recent spate of Taliban attacks and said that the violence will not help them get what they want from the international community.
Press secretary Jen Psaki criticized Taliban violence on Friday afternoon, which coincided with the Taliban capturing their first provincial capital and a successful assassination attempt against Dawa Khan Menapal, head of the Government Media and Information Center.
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“First, let me strongly condemn, on behalf of the government, of course, the assassination of Dawa Khan Menapal, the director of the Afghan governmental information media center. His murder follows the bombing attack in Kabul earlier this week, the targeting at the acting Afghan defense minister,” she explained. “The Taliban has claimed responsibility for this later attack, and there’s no reason to doubt reports they are responsible.”
Eight people were killed and 20 were wounded in the Taliban’s failed assassination attempt of acting Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi on Tuesday.
Psaki also said the administration is “closely tracking” and is “concerned about” retaliatory killings of civilians. Some civilians who worked with the United States military are eligible to seek refugee status in the U.S. due to the possibility of retribution.
“If the Taliban claim to want international legitimacy, these actions are not going to get them the legitimacy they seek,” she said. “They do not have to stay on this trajectory. They could choose to devote the same energy to the peace process as they are to their military campaign. We strongly urge them to do so. This is what the Afghan people so urgently need.”
The Taliban are continuing their aggressive push as the U.S.’s impending withdrawal moves further along. All U.S. troops are expected to have left Afghanistan by Aug. 31, an end date that was moved up from Sept. 11, though more than 95% of them have already departed.
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Psaki was asked during the briefing whether the Taliban’s attacks have changed the administration’s position on leaving Afghanistan.
“[The president] made clear after 20 years at war, it’s time for American troops to come home, and as he said at the time, the status quo is not an option,” she added.
