US launches airstrike against Taliban forces, in first attack since Qatar deal

KABUL/WASHINGTON－The United States conducted on Wednesday its first airstrike against Taliban forces in Afghanistan since Washington signed an ambitious peace deal with the militant group in Qatar.

US military spokesman Colonel Sonny Leggett said in a tweet that the "defensive" strike was the first US attack against the militants in 11 days. He said the attack was to counter a Taliban assault on Afghan government forces in Nahr-e Saraj in the southern Helmand Province.

At least 19 Afghan security force members and several Taliban militants were killed in separate predawn clashes on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump spoke by telephone with chief Taliban negotiator Mullah Baradar Akhund, the first known conversation between a US leader and a top Taliban official, as a dispute over a prisoner release threatened the Washington-led effort to forge a peace deal in Afghanistan.

The call, confirmed by Trump, came three days after Baradar and US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad signed an agreement in Qatar for a withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.

That deal, a step toward ending the US' longest war, could boost Trump's bid for a second term in the Nov 3 US election. Trump has made a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan a priority.

The pact calls for a phased withdrawal of US-led foreign forces if the Taliban keeps its commitments and for the March 10 start of talks between the insurgents and an Afghan delegation on a political settlement to end decades of conflict.

But the peace effort quickly hit an obstacle, with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani refusing to implement a part of the accord－to which his government was not a party－providing for the release of up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners under an exchange with Afghan government troops.

Ghani said the issue should be negotiated, but the Taliban demanded about 5,000 prisoners go free before peace talks begin.

In a statement on the 35-minute Trump-Baradar conversation, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid suggested Baradar gave no ground on the issue.

'Very good' relationship

Speaking with reporters, Trump gave few details of the discussion but said he had a good relationship with Baradar.

"We had a very good conversation with the leader of the Taliban today. They're looking to get this ended, and we're looking to get it ended …the relationship is very good that I have with the mullah. We had a good, long conversation today."

Trump declined to say if the call was his first with Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban and its political chief. Pakistan released Baradar from prison in October 2018 to lead the Taliban negotiating team.

The call was the first known conversation between a US president and a leader of the insurgent group overthrown in the 2001 US-led invasion for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden while he plotted the Sept 11, 2001, attacks.

James Dobbins, a former US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said he was confident that no prior US president had such contact, which he chalked up to Trump's "showmanship".

More than 2,500 US troops have died in Afghanistan and more than 20,660 have been wounded.

Agencies - Xinhua