The US peace envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, in the early hours of Friday, tweeted that the US has assessed that Daesh is the perpetrator of the recent attacks in Kabul and Nangarhar, and that the group opposes a peace deal between the Afghan government and the Taliban. He called on Afghans to not fall into Daesh’s “trap” by letting the incidents further disrupt peace efforts between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
Daesh “has demonstrated a pattern for favoring these types of heinous attacks against civilians,” he tweeted.
Khalilzad said that Daesh “opposes a peace agreement between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban and seeks to encourage sectarian war as in Iraq and Syria.”
He added that rather than falling into Daesh’s “trap” by delaying peace or creating obstacles, “Afghans must come together to crush this menace and pursue a historic peace opportunity,” and there should be “no more excuses.”
On Tuesday, Kabul and eastern Nangarhar witnessed deadly attacks on civilians.
At least 24 were killed–including many pregnant women and some infants–and 16 others were wounded, in an attack on a maternity hospital in Kabul on Tuesday that lasted for five hours.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Also on Tuesday, at least 32 people were killed and more than 103 were wounded in a blast at a funeral in the eastern province of Nangarhar.
On Monday night, the Taliban launched an attack on Afghan security checkpoints in eastern Laghman province in which 27 soldiers were killed and several military vehicles were destroyed.
Also on Thursday, the Taliban launched a suicide attack at the Defense Ministry bldg in Gardiz city, the center of eastern Paktia province. The MoD said 5 civilians were killed and 24 others–including five security forces–were wounded.
On Tuesday night, while addressing the nation, President Ashraf Ghani, in response to the recent attacks, ordered the Afghan forces to switch from “active defense” mode to “offense” mode, and to resume attacks on the Taliban.
The Afghan forces were in “active defense” mode since late February when the Taliban agreed to reduce violence in exchange for signing a peace deal with the United States. But Taliban attacks surged dramatically after they signed the deal in late February.
The Taliban responded with a statement on Wednesday blaming the Afghan government for prolonging the violence and saying if the ANDSF increases the attacks then the Taliban should not be blamed for an escalation of violence.
The Taliban said Ghani wants to continue his “rule” by prolonging the war.
Meanwhile, the National Directorate of Security in a statement on Wednesday released numbers indicating that the Taliban has conducted 3,712 attacks between Feb. 29 to May 11, “killing 469 civilians and wounding 948 others.”
