NATO's Afghanistan withdrawal depends on violence levels, Stoltenberg says
- par Xavier Trudeau
- dans Financer
- — Fév 16, 2021
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A total of 30 Taliban militants were killed after their explosive device went off inside a mosque in Dawlatabad district of the northern Balkh Province on Saturday, an Afghanistan army spokesman in the northern region, Mohammad Hanif Rezai said.
According to the statement, bodies of the six Taliban affiliated foreign nationals could not be identified because of the blast.
The dead include 24 Taliban insurgents and six foreign militants, the Afghan National Army's 209 Shaheen Corps said in a statement.
Violence in Afghanistan has been relentless while peace talks between the Taliban and government representatives that have been under way in Qatar for months have now stalled.
There has also been a nationwide spike in bombings, targeted killings and violence on the battlefield.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is weighing up whether to withdraw the roughly 10,000 troops from the region and will meet this week to make a final decision.
The worldwide body has been urged by the Taliban to leave the country and never come back.
The Taliban has warned North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ministers not to seek a "continuation of occupation and war".
"Anyone seeking extension of wars and occupation will be held liable for it just like the previous two decades".
Defence ministers are also expected to discuss the futures of Afghanistan and Iraq, where Canada has been slowly withdrawing troops after almost seven years fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, as well as the threat posed by China and Russian Federation.
As a result of the threat, the Taliban said it would continue to "fight and jihad" if troops from overseas aren't removed by the three month deadline.
"It will be fair if the country that deploys troops doesn't cover all the costs", NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during a virtual news conference from his Brussels headquarters, ahead of talks Wednesday where U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other allied defense leaders will discuss issues ranging from defense spending to security matters, including the future of NATO's mission in Afghanistan and its training mission in Iraq.
"If we decide to leave we risk to jeopardize the peace process, we risk to lose the gains we have made in the fight against worldwide terrorism over the last years", the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation chief said earlier this month.
In his final days in office, Trump unilaterally reduced USA forces in Afghanistan to just 2,500 - the lowest since the start of the war in 2001.
