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KABUL: The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo’s recent remarks that no U.S. service member was killed in almost one year, had faced a widespread criticism among the Afghans officials and social media users.
A Spokesman for the Presidential Palace, Dawa Khan Minapal said that the reason for cessation of the foreign troop casualties is that the Afghan security forces “are directly” involved in the war and fighting the militants.
However, the casualties of the foreign forces have been significantly dropped – Minapal said that the Afghans have been suffering a huge tool on a daily basis. He said that the Taliban has been fighting the Afghan government and its people.
As the U.S. incumbent Administration of Republican is on the edge of leaving, Pompeo in a series of tweets praised the US foreign policy made in his tenure.
He backed the American troop drawdown in Afghanistan, saying that every US administration has wanted to draw down the number of troops in the country.
The US and Taliban after over ten rounds of controversial peace negotiations forge a peace deal on February 29th of 2020. The agreement that also laid out the drawdown of the US troops in Afghanistan stipulated the Taliban to cut ties with the al-Qaeda terrorist network who mastermind the 9/11 attack in the US, leaving over 2,500 American killed and scores of others wounded.
Secretary of State cited that the US mission in Afghanistan is to eliminate the al-Qaeda and threats against the US. “Don’t need 10s of 1,000s of U.S. troops on the ground to do that. We have partners: brave Afghans, NATO forces. We also have the ability to project power from afar,” Pompeo said.
But a previous report of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan revealed that the Taliban didn’t cut its links with the al-Qaeda.
The agreement also paves the ground for the intra-Afghan negotiations which are presently paused after the negotiation teams of the government and Taliban decided to take a break to consult the agendas of the talks with their leaderships .
“No U.S. servicemen have been killed in Afghanistan in almost a year, and Afghans are finally discussing peace and reconciliation among themselves. Such incredible progress,” Pompeo added.
