Taliban backbone will be broken: Ghani

KABUL: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani travelled to the northern province of Balkh on Tuesday to assess security after the Taliban pushed government forces out of several districts there.

Ghani, 72, met civilians and assured them that "the Taliban's backbone will be broken" and government forces would soon retake areas lost to the militants, international media reported.

The Taliban made a commitment to negotiate with their Afghan rivals as part of an agreement under which the United States agreed to withdraw. But little progress has been made towards a ceasefire in several rounds of talks in Qatar.

Meanwhile, Farid Mamundzay, Afghanistan’s Ambassador to India, said the government of Afghanistan may, at some future point, seek India’s military assistance if talks with the Taliban fail amid a withdrawal of US troops from there. He, however, made it clear that the aid sought would not involve sending troops but could be in areas like training and technical support.

“Should we not get to a stage in the peace process with the Taliban, then maybe a time (will come) where we would be seeking India’s military assistance, more military assistance in the years ahead,” he said.

“We are not seeking India’s assistance with sending troops to Afghanistan. Their footprint in Afghanistan to fight our war would not be needed at this stage,” he clarified.

He explained that Air Force is an area where his country would require assistance in and that more opportunities could be explored on this front. The envoy cited pilot training, for which India is “naturally a place” it would want involvement from.