KABUL: Two months after the US and Taliban signed a deal, violence is spiralling out of control in the war-torn Afghanistan that can potentially harm the fragile peace process, warned experts on Wednesday.
Dozens of Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters have been dying almost daily with civilian casualties rising across the country as both sides ramp up operations. The insurgents have been emboldened by a deal that gave them many concessions in exchange for few commitments, fuelling their surge of attacks in recent weeks, analysts say.
The timing could hardly be worse, as Afghanistan also grapples with a coronavirus epidemic. The peace “process isn´t dead yet, but it is on life support”, said Ashley Jackson, a researcher at the Overseas Development Institute.
“It´s anyone´s guess how much time we have before it does begin to irrevocably fall apart.” An Afghan official said that on average, the Taliban have launched 55 attacks each day since the deal signing in Doha on February 29, while a UN agency reported that Afghan forces are causing more child deaths than the insurgents — mainly from air strikes and shelling.
Analysts say the bloodshed was predictable — or inevitable — given the wording of the deal and the sweeping concessions the US granted its foe of more than 18 years.
Titled the “Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan”, the accord promises a full withdrawal of US and foreign forces without the Taliban committing to a ceasefire or even any reduction in violence.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he wants American troops home quickly, and the Taliban realise that as long as they don´t hit American or foreign troops, there are few consequences for continued attacks.
The insurgents see the agreement as “an end-of-occupation deal”, said Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank.
“The US wants out of Afghanistan and it has ceded to all the Taliban demands.”
Nishank Motwani, a Kabul-based strategy and security expert, said the Doha agreement had emboldened and legitimised the Taliban, who think they have won the war so have little incentive to stop fighting.
“The Taliban fundamentally believe that victory is theirs,” Motwani said.
A suicide bombing near Kabul, the Afghan capital, killed three people and wounded 15 on Wednesday, the interior ministry said, as violence in the war-torn nation threatens a fragile peace process.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the blast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, amid the coronavirus pandemic and United States-led efforts for peace talks between the Taliban militia and the Afghan government.
“A suicide bomber detonated his explosives among civilians,” interior ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said in a statement, adding that the blast happened in the Char Asiab district of Kabul province, about 11 km (7 miles) from the capital.
Hopes for an end to Afghanistan’s decades of war were raised in late February when the Taliban Islamist militants and the United States struck a deal for the withdrawal of U.S.-led foreign forces in exchange for Taliban security guarantees. In the run-up to the pact, there was a one-week reduction in violence, but attacks and bombings have continued since, with the Taliban having rejected calls for a ceasefire.
The United Nations has expressed alarm at the number of civilians killed in March and the U.S. commander in Afghanistan this month travelled to Doha to meet Taliban leaders and warn them the violence must be reduced.
On Wednesday, another blast in Kabul wounded three civilians who were taken to hospital, police said.
Nine people were killed and seven hurt in a Taliban attack on security checkpoints controlled by pro-government militia in northern Semangan province on Tuesday, a provincial police spokesman said, with an unknown number of Taliban casualties.
The Taliban did not respond to a request for comment on the attack in Samangan and a spokesman said he was looking into the blast in Kabul.–Agencies
