Genocide Not A Taliban War Strategy: Former Afghan Official

Lieutenant General Shahnawaz Tanai, a former chief of Afghanistan army, hailed what he called the Taliban’s efforts to avoid killing innocent people over their religious beliefs.

He told Tasnim if all foreign troops withdraw from the South Asian country, the militant group would start holding direct peace talks with the government.

The Taliban, who ruled the country before being ousted by a US-led invasion in late 2001, have renewed armed insurgency, launching attacks on Afghan military forces.

The United States now has about 8,400 troops in Afghanistan. The Pentagon seeks to send almost 4,000 more to expand training of Afghan military forces and bolster US counterterrorism operations.

The US is seeking to reinforce the Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) terror group in Afghanistan to contain the Taliban and hamper any potential peace talks in the country, Tanai said.

“Daesh is a phenomenon created by the US in order to keep fanning the flame of war in Afghanistan,” he went on to say.

Earlier, Afghan Taliban Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had rejected reports that the group has recently killed dozens of Shiite civilians in a remote village north of Afghanistan as rumors spread by the US and Afghan governments.

According to some international media outlets, some 60 people, including women and children, were killed during an attack by militants on Mirza Olang village last Sunday. A number of Afghan security forces were also among the dead.

The militants set fire to several mosques, torched at least 30 houses, beheaded a number of villagers and shot dozens of others dead, the reports said.

Back in late June, Mujahid had said that the presence of Daesh forces in Afghanistan was limited to a small area in the east and they were living in a dire situation near the border.

No Daesh fighters are present in other areas of Afghanistan, and the Taliban will not allow such presence, he stressed at the time.