The Afghan Taliban killed 19 soldiers in an assault today in a remote mountainous region, the Afghan government said, and six soldiers were missing after the militants’ most deadly assault on the security forces in months.
Also today, in a possible blow to US efforts to foster peace talks to end the long Afghan conflict, a Taliban spokesman said the group had suspended its efforts to arrange a possible exchange of Taliban and US prisoners due to the "complexity" of the situation in Afghanistan.
It was not immediately clear whether the attack in the eastern province of Kunar was related to the suspension of talks on a prisoner swap.
In response to the killings in Kunar, a mountainous region bordering Pakistan that has long been a stronghold of Taliban, al Qaeda, and other militants, president Hamid Karzai put off a trip to Sri Lanka.
“The Afghan president is saddened by this tragic incident, and therefore he postponed today’s official trip to Sri Lanka,” Mr Karzai’s office said in a statement.
Mr Karzai’s office said 19 soldiers were killed in the attack and six were missing.
The government sent reinforcements to the area where the predawn attack took place, in Kunar's Ghaziabad district, Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said in a statement.
The Taliban appeared to have been waiting for them. Mr Azimi said the reinforcements “came under enemy attack, and a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near them.” The suicide bomber did not kill any Afghan soldiers, Mr Azimi said.
In a possible reference to al Qaeda or other militants who might not be part of the Afghan Taliban, Mr Azimi also told Reuters that “foreign fighters” had taken part in the attack.
The Afghan Taliban, in a statement emailed to media, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Today's assault was the worst such attack since last September, when Taliban insurgents attacked a convoy of Afghan forces in relatively peaceful northern Badakhshan province, killing at least 18 of them.
The attack took place as US and NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan ahead a year-end deadline, shifting the bulk of the fight against Taliban and other militants to Afghans.
While Afghanistan’s police and army are seen as having made big strides in their ability to fight militants, doubts remain about whether they can keep a still-potent Taliban at bay, especially in places like Kunar.
It remains unclear if the United States and allied nations will keep a small force in Afghanistan after 2014 to support Afghan forces and go after al Qaeda due to Mr Karzai's refusal to sign a US-Afghan pact authorizing a future troop presence.
Peace talks in doubt
In a separate statement, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid announced that the group's reclusive leadership, believed to be based in Pakistan, had suspended attempts to arrange an exchange of senior Taliban locked up for years in a US prison for a US soldier in militant custody.
In an effort to foster peace talks, US officials recently took steps they hoped might revive US discussions with Taliban representatives about the proposed transfer of up to five Taliban detainees out of Guantanamo Bay prison in exchange for the return of Bowe Bergdahl, a US soldier who went missing in Afghanistan in 2009 and is believed to be held by Taliban-linked militants in northwest Pakistan.
“Due to the political complexity of the current situation in the country, the leadership of the Islamic Emirate has decided to suspend the issue for some time,” Mr Mujahid said, using the name the Taliban gave their 1996-2001 government.
“Therefore, the prisoner exchange process has been delayed until further notice,” Mr Mujahid said. He provided no further detail on why the decision had been made.
US officials have long hoped such an exchange would not only free the only US soldier to remain missing in the Afghanistan war, but would also open the door to more substantive peace talks.
Robert Hilton, a spokesman for the US embassy in Kabul, declined to discuss specifics of US efforts to secure Bergdahl's release.
"As we have said before, Sergeant Bergdahl has been gone far too long and we continue to call for his immediate release," Mr Hilton said.
The Taliban statement comes as Mr Karzai’s government seeks to kindle direct talks of its own with Taliban officials.
Afghanistan's High Peace Council, a government body established to foster a political end to the war, said in a statement late on Saturday that a delegation led by senior Karzai aide Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai had met four senior "Taliban representatives" in Dubai last week.
Those Taliban figures, associated with a former Taliban minister named Agha Jan Mutassim, discussed possible peace talks with the Afghan delegates, the High Peace Council said.
The council declined to provide the names of the Taliban representatives the officials met.
But the Taliban leadership has denied it authorized any of its members to participate in recent Dubai discussions and, in a statement last week, reiterated its opposition to hold talks with Mr Karzai’s government, which it deems illegitimate.
Reuters