US strikes Taliban hours after Trump’s phone call to militants

Bloomberg

Hours after Donald Trump spoke by phone with a top leader of the Taliban about peace in Afghanistan, the US conducted an airstrike against the militant group while it was attacking Afghan forces in Helmand province.
US military spokesman Sonny Leggett confirmed the airstrikes on Twitter, calling on the Taliban to stop “needless” attacks. “To be clear — we are committed to peace,” he tweeted, noting that Afghans and the US had complied with the recently-signed agreement, while the Taliban “appear intent on squandering this opportunity and ignoring the will of the people for peace.”
As he left the White House on March 3, Trump called the conversation a “very good talk” and said the two sides had reiterated commitments to reduce violence in a peace agreement reached last week. The US invaded Afghanistan following September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“We had a good conversation,” Trump said of the call, believed to be the first direct communication between an American president and a senior official from the militant group since America’s longest war began 19 years ago.
“We’ve agreed there’s no violence, we don’t want violence, we’ll see what happens, they’re dealing with Afghanistan, but we’ll see what happens.”
On March 3 alone, the Taliban conducted 43 attacks on Afghan forces’ checkpoints in Helmand, Leggett said.
On Wednesday, the Taliban launched attacks against Afghan forces across the country, after resuming military operations.
In two separate assaults in northern Kunduz province in the past 24 hours, at least 20 Afghan forces were killed, said Fawzia Yaftali, a member of Kunduz provincial council, by phone.
The White House provided a statement on the call between Trump and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who signed the peace accord. In addition to urging a continuing reduction in violence, according to the statement, the president encouraged the Taliban to participate in talks with the Afghan government.
The Taliban said that Trump called Afghans a “tough people” who “have a great country and I understand that you are fighting for your homeland.” The group said it foresees “positive bilateral relations” with the US and other nations. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed earlier confirmed the call.
At the time of the US invasion, the Taliban ruled the country and refused to surrender al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who eventually fled to neighbouring Pakistan before being killed by US forces in 2011.
Trump has shown a penchant for being open to talking or meeting with foreign leaders at odds with the US.
He broke decades of precedent when he met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore in 2018 in an effort to jump start talks over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.
The president, speaking in a press conference at the White House, said he plans to meet personally with Taliban leaders “in the not-too-distant future.”