KABUL, Afghanistan -- Despite rumors of truce prospects, the Taliban unleashed a new wave of attacks in northern Afghanistan, targeting members of the country's security forces and killing at least 26, local officials said Wednesday.
The insurgents quickly claimed responsibility for all of the attacks. The Taliban today hold sway over about half of Afghanistan, staging near-daily attacks that target soldiers, security forces and government officials but also kill scores of civilians.
In northern Kunduz province, at least 10 Afghan troops were killed and four others were wounded in an attack on a police checkpoint in the district of Dashti Archi late Tuesday, according to Mohammad Yusouf Ayubi, the head of the provincial council.
And in Balkh province, the Taliban killed nine police officers in an attack on their checkpoint. The fate of four other policemen who were at the checkpoint was unknown, said Mohammad Afzel Hadid, head of the provincial council.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that the insurgents in the Balkh attack had infiltrated police ranks long ago and waited for a chance to strike. Though the Taliban often exaggerate their claims, the insurgents also on occasion disguise themselves in Afghan uniforms to get easier access to their targets.
In a third attack Tuesday night, a gunbattle with the Taliban killed seven members of the security forces in Takhar province, according to Jawad Hajri, the provincial governor's spokesman. He said 10 Taliban fighters were also killed.
The shootout took place in Darqad district after the security forces had successfully cleared out the Taliban from several other districts in the past week, said Hajri. Fighting was still underway there Wednesday, he said.
The Taliban have intensified their attacks in northern Afghanistan in recent days.
They struck a pro-government militia compound in Jawzjan province before dawn Monday, killing 14 members of the Afghan security forces. A similar militia compound was targeted in Takhar on Sunday, when at least 17 militiamen were killed. On Friday, at least 10 Afghan soldiers died in a Taliban attack on a checkpoint in southern Helmand province.
The latest Taliban attacks underscore that the insurgents are at their strongest in the 18-year war, America's longest conflict, even as their leadership, based in the Arab Gulf state of Qatar, has been negotiating with a U.S. envoy.
The fighting has shown no signs of abating. U.S. airstrikes and operations by Afghan security forces over the past two days killed 35 Taliban fighters in offensives across the country, including an airstrike in Kandahar province that killed 11 Taliban insurgents, the U.S. military said. Several Taliban were also detained, the U.S. military added.
Even with the surge in violence, rumors of a possible new truce have flooded the news over the past week. International media outlets have reported that a cease-fire is imminent, citing unnamed sources after Taliban leaders held several meetings in Pakistan.
Spokesmen for the insurgents have adamantly denied the reports of a nationwide truce deal. But they have held open the possibility of accepting a narrower, more vaguely defined period of lessened conflict, with the time frame and territory still in dispute.
"The Islamic Emirate has no intention of declaring a cease-fire," Mujahid said in a statement. "The United States has asked for a reduction in the scale and intensity of violence, and discussions being held by the Islamic Emirate are revolving solely around this specific issue."
American officials have said nothing about the conflicting reports. U.S. negotiator Zalmai Khalilzad has been silent since returning to Washington this week after meeting with Taliban and Pakistani officials.
Afghan officials said they have received no word from either side. The Taliban have refused to recognize President Ashraf Ghani's government, but he appears to have narrowly won reelection in a September poll and has asserted that the final results will confirm that, giving him a mandate to lead the peace effort.
In the absence of facts, a wave of confusion and commentary has swept media and political circles in Afghanistan. One common theory is that Taliban leaders in Pakistan agreed to a truce but that some field commanders still oppose it, believing they can win the war and return the country to full-fledged religious rule.
The momentum has also been slowed by the likelihood that President Donald Trump may soon reduce the 13,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan to about 8,600. Previously, U.S. officials insisted that the insurgents had to sign a peace agreement before any major troop cuts would take place.
Other points of contention include whether the fighting pause would last one week or longer, whether it would be confined to certain cities or include rural areas, and whether it would be called a formal truce or a more subjective reduction in violence.
"The Taliban are under pressure from Pakistan and the U.S. to sign a deal, and they may be putting on an appeasing face to buy time, but their past behavior shows they are difficult to trust," said Haroun Mir, an analyst in Kabul who helped found Afghanistan's Center for Research and Policy Studies. If the insurgents agree to a brief truce during a cold winter, when fighting always slows, he said, "it will mean nothing."
Since preliminary election results showed Ghani winning reelection by about 10,000 votes, his opponents have filed thousands of fraud complaints that may take months to investigate. But Ghani is racing to form a delegation to negotiate with the Taliban, even as an array of rivals has objected that they are being left out.
"The whole country is keenly interested in peace, but the ground is not being prepared for it," said Ehsanullah Zia, Afghan director of the nonprofit U.S. Institute of Peace. Even with people dying every day, he said, some Afghans are demanding "red lines for peace. We don't have the luxury of setting red lines. People need to suppress their personal ambitions for the sake of the country."
Information for this article was contributed by Rahim Faiez of The Associated Press and by Pamela Constable of The Washington Post.
A Section on 01/02/2020