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Officials on both sides of Afghanistan’s protracted conflict say efforts are ramping up for the start of negotiations between Afghan representatives and the Taliban while a top U.N. envoy expressed hope Thursday that a formal launch will take place in “the coming days, not the coming weeks.”
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Peace talks between Afghanistan's government and the Taliban are no postponed indefinitely.
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The move looks to bring the United States a little closer to bringing home its troops and ending its longest military engagement.
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Militants affiliated with the Islamic State group stormed a prison in eastern Afghanistan and freed nearly 400 of their fighters before security forces restored order, a government official said Monday.
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Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and political rival Abdullah Abdullah signed a power-sharing agreement, two months after both declared themselves the winner of last September’s presidential election, Ghani’s spokesman said Sunday.
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Militants stormed a maternity hospital in the western part of Kabul on Tuesday, setting off an hours-long shootout with the police and killing 16 people, including two newborn babies, their mothers and an unspecified number of nurses, Afghan officials said.
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The government blamed the Taliban for the attack, which took place a day after the country's defense minister and the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan visited the facility.
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Pompeo was in Kabul on an urgent visit to try to move forward a U.S. peace deal signed last month with the Taliban.
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Since the signing of the deal, the peace process has stalled amid political turmoil in Afghanistan, with the country's leaders squabbling over who was elected president.
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A recent peace deal signed between the United States and the Taliban called for the release of up to 5,000 prisoners ahead of the much sought-after negotiations.