US soldier is killed in Afghanistan; Taliban claim attack
KABUL,
Afghanistan (AP) — An American service member was killed in combat
Monday in Afghanistan, the U.S. military said, without providing further
details, while the Taliban claimed they were behind a roadside bombing
in northern Kunduz province that killed the U.S. soldier.
The
latest fatality brings the number of U.S. deaths in Afghanistan this
year to 20. There have also been three non-combat deaths in 2019. More
than 2,400 Americans have died in the nearly 18-year conflict.
The
Taliban now control or hold sway over practically half of Afghanistan
but continue to stage near-daily attacks targeting Afghan and U.S.
forces, as well as government officials — even as they hold peace talks
with a U.S. envoy tasked with negotiating an end to what has become
America’s longest war. Scores of Afghan civilians are also killed in the
crossfire or by roadside bombs planted by militants.
Monday’s
U.S. military statement did not identify the U.S. soldier or say where
in Afghanistan the service member was killed. It said that in accordance
with U.S. Department of Defense policy, names of service member killed
in action are being withheld for 24 hours, until the notification of the
family is completed.
Last month, two U.S. service members were
killed in Afghanistan when their helicopter crashed in eastern Logar
province. The Taliban also claimed responsibility for that crash, saying
they had downed the helicopter, causing many fatalities. The U.S.
military dismissed the Taliban claim as false.
Shortly after the
U.S. military statement on Monday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid
tweeted that the U.S. soldier was killed in the Chardara district in
northern Kunduz province where U.S. and Afghan forces were carrying out a
joint raid. Mujahid said the insurgents had planted roadside bomb that
killed the service member. He even tweeted a purported photo ID of the
slain U.S. soldier, without saying how it was obtained.
The U.S. military would not immediately comment on the tweet or the Taliban claim.
The
Taliban have a strong presence in Kunduz province and are completely in
control of several of the province’s districts. The provincial capital,
the city of Kunduz, briefly fell to the Taliban in 2015, before the
insurgents withdrew in the face of a NATO-backed Afghan offensive. The
city is a strategic crossroads with easy access to much of northern
Afghanistan as well as the country’s capital, Kabul, about 200 miles
(335 kilometers) away.
The following year, 2016, the Taliban
pushed back into the city center, briefly raising their flag before
gradually being driven out again. In August this year they launched
another attempt to overrun the city but were repelled.
Washington’s
peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has been trying to hammer out a peace
agreement with the Taliban for over a year. The U.S. wants the deal to
include a promise from the Taliban that Afghanistan would not used as a
base by any terrorist group.
Earlier this month, Khalilzad met
with Taliban representatives in Qatar, where the insurgents maintain a
political office, as the talks between the two sides resumed after a
three-month halt by President Donald Trump following a particularly
deadly wave of Taliban attacks, including a Kabul suicide bombing that
killed an American soldier.
The Qatar meeting focused on getting a Taliban promise to reduce violence, with a permanent cease-fire being the eventual goal.
Khalilzad
is trying to lay the groundwork for negotiations between Afghans on
both sides of the protracted conflict but the Taliban refuse to talk
directly with the Kabul government.
Meanwhile, a bomb went off on
Monday morning at the funeral of a village elder in eastern Laghman
province, killing at least three civilians and wounding seven, according
to Asadullah Dawlatzai, the provincial governor’s spokesman. He said
the explosion took place in the district of Dawlat Shah.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but the spokesman blamed the Taliban.