WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Michael Pompeo called persistent Taliban attacks in Afghanistan an "unacceptable" impediment to the peace process that began when the U.S. signed an agreement with the militant group last weekend.
"In no uncertain terms, violence must be reduced immediately for the peace process to move forward," Pompeo told reporters in Washington on Thursday after a wave of Taliban attacks against military outposts that's killed about 20 Afghan soldiers.
"We know that the road ahead will be difficult," Pompeo said. "We expected it. We were right."
Pompeo said the Trump administration still thinks Taliban leaders are working to deliver on commitments they made with the U.S. in Saturday's agreement in Doha.
U.S. officials said an American airstrike Wednesday was intended as a message to the Taliban to continue to enforce a reduction in violence that they committed to before peace talks with the Afghan government that are supposed to begin next week.
Officials noted that the deal did not include a full cease-fire but left negotiations on a nationwide truce to the follow-up talks. It did not say that the truce or completion of a peace accord were required conditions for the withdrawal of American troops.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper told senators Wednesday that the Taliban were honoring the agreement by not attacking U.S. and coalition forces, "but not in terms of sustaining the reduction in violence." He added: "Keeping that group of people on board is a challenge. They've got their range of hard-liners and soft-liners, and so they're wrestling with that too, I think."
Esper said the document allowed the U.S. to act in defense of the Afghan forces. The peace deal says the U.S. must begin withdrawing more than 4,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan in the next week or so.
Pompeo called on all sides to get the process moving.
"We continue to press all sides to stop posturing, start a practical discussion about prisoner releases, knuckle down and prepare for the upcoming inter-Afghan negotiations," he said. "The future of this peace process isn't just about what we do, or what the Taliban does, it's about getting the Afghan people together to solve this problem that has plagued Afghanistan for now 40 years."
U.S. military spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett said in a tweet that Wednesday's "defensive" strike was aimed at countering a Taliban assault on Afghan government forces in southern Helmand province. He said Taliban forces had conducted 43 attacks on Afghan troops on Tuesday in Helmand, where the local governor's official said two police officers were killed.
The Afghan Interior Ministry said four civilians and 11 troops were killed Wednesday in a wave of Taliban attacks across the country.
Also on Thursday, International Criminal Court judges authorized a far-reaching investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed by Afghan government forces, the Taliban, American troops and U.S. foreign intelligence operatives.
The appellate ruling marked the first time the court's prosecutor has been cleared to investigate U.S. forces and set the global tribunal on a collision course with the Trump administration.
Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda pledged to carry out an independent and impartial investigation, and called for full support and cooperation from all parties.
"The many victims of atrocious crimes committed in the context of the conflict in Afghanistan deserve to finally have justice," Bensouda said. "Today they are one step closer to that coveted outcome."
Pompeo declined to say what the U.S. might do, but said an announcement would probably come in a couple of weeks.
"This is a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution masquerading as a legal body," he said.
Information for this article was contributed by Lolita C. Baldor, Mike Corder and Matthew Lee of The Associated Press; and by Nick Wadhams of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 03/06/2020