Taliban ‘clearly’ behind Afghan unrest: US

ABOARD A US MILITARY AIRCRAFT: Taliban are ‘clearly’ responsible for violence in Afghanistan, with civilians and Afghan security forces taking the brunt of the bloodshed, the commander of US forces in the Middle East said Thursday.

General Kenneth McKenzie, head of the US Army Central Command (Centcom), made the remark on a regional tour, as President Joe Biden reviews a military withdrawal from the country planned for the beginning of May. Taliban denies being behind the violence which has escalated as US-brokered peace negotiations with the Afghan government stalled, saying those responsible are other jihadist groups. But General McKenzie has blamed them directly.

"Certainly the Islamic State has launched some attacks. It pales against what the Taliban is doing. It’s a combination of their countrywide attacks against the Afghan forces, their targeted assassinations in some of the urban areas.”

“This is clearly the Taliban. There is no way it’s anyone else. That’s very clear,” McKenzie said. He also said that violence in the war-weary country is “too high now.” “Violence is not directed at us or our coalition Nato friends, it is directed against the Afghan military and security forces and against the people as well. And that is principally coming from the Taliban,” he stressed to reporters.