Pak safe heavens helping terrorists in Afghanistan: Pentagon

Washington [US], August 10 (ANI): The US has said that Pakistani safe heavens are helping terrorists in the war-ravaged Afghanistan and Washington is in talks with Islamabad asking them to close those safe heavens located at the country’s border area with Afghanistan.

“We continue to have conversations with Pakistani leadership about the safe havens that exist along that border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. And we’re mindful that those safe havens are only providing a source of more insecurity, more instability inside Afghanistan,” Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said at a press briefing on Monday.

“We all have a shared sense of the importance of closing down those safe havens and not allowing them to be used by the Taliban or other terrorist networks to sow discord,” Kirby added.

The US also shared its concerns that the international community’s security situation in Afghanistan, which is clearly not going in the right direction. However, Washington believes that the Afghan forces have the capability, to make a big difference on the battlefield.

“The US will continue to support Afghanistan with the authority where and when feasible, understanding that it’s not always going to be feasible. But where and when feasible, we’ll continue to support them with airstrikes, for instance,” Kirby said.

US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad will be in Doha on Tuesday to help formulate a joint international response to the rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. The meeting of the extended troika on Afghan settlement is scheduled to begin today in Qatar.

Khalilzad will “press the Taliban to stop their military offensive” and to negotiate a political settlement, which is the only path to stability and development in Afghanistan.

As the Taliban have been capturing multiple regions in Afghanistan, the terror group’s aggressive offensive has killed many government forces and innocent civilians. Multiple reports have claimed that the group has been looting innocent civilians after capturing various areas.

The Taliban’s recent skirmish became aggressive soon after the US troops started leaving war-torn Afghanistan in large numbers under the new peace deal signed between Washington and the Taliban in February last year. (ANI)