Tag Archives: Afghanistan

U.S. military punishes 16 over 2015 Afghan hospital bombing

Hospital beds lay in the Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan

By Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military will announce on Friday that has it taken disciplinary action against 16 service members over a deadly Oct. 3 air strike in Afghanistan that destroyed a hospital run by the international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, U.S. officials told Reuters.

The disclosure of the nonjudicial punishments will come during the release of the findings of a U.S. military investigation into the incident, which will broadly conclude that the strike was a tragic mistake, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

That finding is consistent with the results of a preliminary investigation released by the U.S. military in November, when commanders stressed that American forces did not intentionally target the hospital.

Instead, General John Campbell, who was then head of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, described a series of blunders that allowed the American forces to target the hospital, even though it was on a no-strike list.

MSF, known as Doctors Without Borders in English, has in the past publicly cast doubt on the idea that the strike could have been a mistake.

Forty-two people were killed in the incident and 37 were wounded as American forces helped Afghans repel Taliban insurgents from the city of Kunduz last year.

One general was among those singled out for disciplinary action, the officials said. The nonjudicial punishments include letters of reprimand, which could have a career-ending effect on the service members involved.

“These people are not promotable,” said one U.S. official.

According to the initial U.S. investigation, U.S. forces had meant to target a different building in the city and were led off-track by a technical error in their aircraft’s mapping system that initially directed them to an empty field.

The U.S. forces then looked for a target that was visually similar to the one they had originally sought, the former National Directorate of Security headquarters in Kunduz, which they believed was occupied by insurgents.

The Taliban’s brief capture of the Kunduz provincial capital was arguably the biggest victory for the militants in the 15-year war since they were toppled by U.S.-led forces in late 2001.

Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since the departure of most foreign combat troops in 2014.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Bernard Orr and James Dalgleish)

Fierce Afghan Fighting Slows NATO

Incoming Commander of Resolute Support forces and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, U.S. Army General John Nicholson speaks during a change of command ceremony in Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan,

By Paul Tait

FORWARD OPERATING BASE GAMBERI, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Intense fighting and unprecedented casualties suffered by Afghan forces in 2015 have put U.S. and NATO efforts to train a self-sufficient force behind schedule, the new commanding general in Afghanistan told Reuters on Monday.

The impact of the violence in 2015, and the changing nature of the enemy Afghan troops face, will form an important part of an initial assessment of conditions in Afghanistan being conducted by new commander General John Nicholson.

“This intense period of combat interfered with the glide slope we were on. The assumptions we made about our timelines, we have to re-look based upon the high casualties they took,” Nicholson said in his first interview since taking command of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan last month.

“It wasn’t just the high casualties, which require replacement and retraining,” he said.

“There was also the fact that they had to stop training and fight all year. So this put us behind on our projections in terms of the growth and increasing proficiency of the army and the police.”

Nicholson is about a third of the way through the 90-day assessment he will present in Washington some time in June.

It could be the most significant since General Stanley McChrystal recommended a “surge” in 2009 that took U.S. troop numbers to 100,000 and the overall NATO force to about 140,000.

Under the current timeline, the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan will fall from 9,800 at present to 5,500 by the start of 2017, barring a dramatic change of thinking in Washington.

The adherence to that timeline could be affected by the success of the mission to train Afghan soldiers and police, and to build a proficient air force to support them.

Nicholson would not be drawn on his recommendations for future troop levels.

Taliban gains, including their brief capture of the key northern city of Kunduz last year, led his predecessor General John Campbell to recommend dropping plans to cut U.S. troop numbers from the start of 2016 and instead maintain the 9,800-strong force before a reduction by the start of next year.

Originally President Barack Obama had intended roughly to halve U.S. troop numbers in Afghanistan this year and cut the force to just 1,000 troops based at the U.S. embassy in Kabul by the start of 2017.

HEAVY LOSSES

Nicholson said Afghan forces suffered 5,500 killed in action and more than 14,000 wounded in 2015, significantly affecting the U.S.-led training and assistance mission.

“This would be an enormous shock for any army, (including) a young army that is still growing. Yet they did not break,” Nicholson said, after touring Forward Operating Base Gamberi in eastern Laghman province, one of the four main training bases.

A recent report from the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said it was unlikely that a “robust and sustainable” force would develop without a continuing strong U.S. and NATO presence.

Nicholson said that the heavy fighting of 2015 and casualties suffered by Afghan forces would be among the conditions NATO leaders would consider when deciding when to withdraw.

Nicholson added that “some more years” were needed to expand and train the fledgling Afghan air force now that U.S. and NATO aircraft take part in fewer operations. That effort in turn was affected by the heavy fighting in 2015.

“The pilots that we’re training are going directly into combat. The combat affects the speed with which we can train and field the air force,” he said.

“Until that airforce is fully fielded, the Afghans are at increased risk,” he said.

(Additional reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

Red Cross sounds alarm on rising casualties in ‘ignored’ Afghanistan

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is in a “downward spiral”, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned on Friday, as he sounded the alarm on rising attacks against medical facilities.

“There are more displaced people, more war-wounded and more disabled people,” ICRC president Peter Maurer said at the end of a visit to Afghanistan – the organization’s largest operation.

“Humanitarian concerns are growing, yet international attention is dwindling. It seems that the more the Afghan people suffer, the less attention there is on them.”

An estimated one million people are displaced within Afghanistan, some having been uprooted multiple times.

The Taliban, ousted from power in a U.S.-led military intervention in 2001, has been waging a violent insurgency to try to topple Afghanistan’s Western-backed government and re-establish a fundamentalist Islamic regime.

The number of civilian casualties hit a record high for the seventh successive year in 2015, with over 11,000 non-combatants killed or injured, according to U.N. data.

Increased ground fighting in and around populated areas, along with suicide and other attacks in major cities, caused many of the deaths and injuries.

Maurer said a particularly worrying trend was the escalation in attacks against medical facilities and staff which was making it increasingly difficult for civilians to access health care.

Such attacks have risen 50 percent in the last year, he said in a statement.

“Every bombed out hospital and every doctor or nurse who is forced to flee, means thousands of people cannot get immediate medical treatment when necessary,” he added.

The most high profile attack was the U.S. bombing of a hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres in the northern city of Kunduz in October.

International humanitarian law obliges all warring parties to protect medical missions, the ICRC said.

Maurer noted that Afghans are the second largest group of refugees and migrants arriving in Europe behind Syrians.

“This shows that the chronic violence and insecurity, and the permanent unpredictability of the war, has pushed people beyond their limits,” he added.

In two tweets at the end his trip, Maurer wrote: “My conclusion after a week in Afghanistan: this is not a forgotten conflict, it’s an ignored conflict.

“It defies human logic: the more victims there are in Afghanistan, the less attention there is on the country.”

(Editing by Ros Russell)

European cities join hands to stay afloat in migrant crisis

BARCELONA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – As hundreds of asylum seekers from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere make the risky journey across the Aegean Sea each day to reach Europe, the Greek island of Lesbos faces the problem of what to do with the discarded dinghies piling up on its shores.

Help may be at hand, thanks to an agreement signed this week between the Lesbos municipality and Barcelona. Environmental technicians from the Spanish city will advise on how to deal with the waste piling up on the island, which lies just a few miles from the Turkish coast.

Under the deal, Barcelona city council will also share environmental and logistical expertise with the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, which has seen a huge influx of migrants crossing from North Africa.

The agreement is just one example of cooperation between city and town halls across Europe to try to cope with the continent’s worst refugee crisis since World War Two.

These efforts are a response to a lack of support from national governments and the European Union, experts told a conference on resilient cities in Barcelona this week.

“The debate is taking place very remotely from the people who are ultimately going to be charged with the responsibility of housing, servicing, supporting and integrating refugees,” said Dan Lewis, head of UN-Habitat’s urban risk reduction unit. “(Cities) don’t have a voice in this.”

Eighty to 90 percent of refugees coming to Europe are likely to settle in cities, and many will stay for years, Lewis said.

Those cities will have to try and create dignified lives for refugees – yet there are limited resources and policy measures to help them deal with migration pressures, he added.

“The question of resources and the distribution of resources hasn’t been resolved at state level yet,” he said. “The only other option is for the cities to generate their own.”

SOLIDARITY

That is why cities are setting up solidarity networks, such as that launched by Barcelona this week. Some are also committing their own financial resources to tackle the crisis.

Barcelona city council said on Tuesday it would triple financial aid for refugees in transit to $340,000, responding to the “humanitarian consequences of the decision by European states to close the Balkans route”.

The one thing Barcelona cannot do for now is take in more refugees, as it is blocked by bureaucracy at national level.

On Wednesday, Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau sent a letter to the Spanish prime minister asking for official permission for the Catalan capital to accept 100 refugees now in Athens.

“Barcelona could be hosting and welcoming some of these people – why couldn’t we have an agreement between two cities to relocate (refugees)?” Colau asked, sitting beside Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis.

Colau told the Thomson Reuters Foundation she could not say how many asylum seekers Barcelona could resettle, nor when they might arrive, as Spain struggles to form a new government.

“(Madrid) has not responded to the cities and autonomous communities that have said we want to help and are prepared to help,” she told the conference.

INTEGRATION

Kaminis said the Greek capital – through which some 80 percent of the more than 900,000 refugees to arrive from Turkey since the start of 2015 have passed – is receiving support from the United Nations to house 50,000 people in apartments and camps.

“Many of these people are going to stay in Greece – some for the coming years, and many forever – and we need to be ready for the challenge of integrating them into our society,” he said.

The mayors said it was important to find ways to ease tensions between newcomers and city locals, such as making clear that rules to protect people’s rights apply to all.

Colau called for European countries to allow asylum seekers to work, so they can integrate into society and start a regular life.

A well-considered, inclusive approach to migration would help overcome fears about its potential negative impacts – which are generally unfounded, experts told the Barcelona conference.

Immigration has always helped meet demand for labor and spurred economic and scientific development, innovation and culture, said Josep Roig, head of United Cities and Local Governments, a global network.

“Migration and mobility are often portrayed and perceived as a threat, and a burden for local communities rather than an opportunity and benefit – this is a contradiction of reality,” he said.

(Reporting by Megan Rowling; editing by Ros Russell.)

Troops pull out of more posts in volatile southern Afghanistan

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan forces have pulled back from strongpoints in the southern province of Uruzgan, continuing a withdrawal which began last month when they abandoned two districts in the neighboring province of Helmand to the Taliban, officials said on Tuesday.

Provincial government spokesman Dost Mohammad Nayab said around 100 troops and police had been pulled from checkpoints in two areas in Shahidi Hassas district and sent to the neighboring district of Deh Rawud.

The Afghan Taliban, seeking to topple the Western-backed government in Kabul and reimpose Islamic rule 15 years after they were ousted from power, said the move, which came after heavy fighting late on Monday, had left the entire area around the village of Yakhdan under their control.

The decision to leave the posts follows months of heavy fighting with the Taliban, who have put government forces under heavy pressure across southern Afghanistan.

“We want to create a reserve battalion in Deh Rawud and we may ask our soldiers and policemen from other districts also to leave their checkpoints,” Nayab said.

Nayab said the withdrawal was prompted by a shortage of troops and police, worn down by combat losses and desertions. He said troop numbers in the province were about 1,000 short of their assigned strength while police were hundreds short.

“Some of them have left the army and police, some have been killed or wounded and some have surrendered to the Taliban,” he said. “We have to control situation here until we receive enough forces.”

NATO officials have long pressed Afghan commanders to pull troops off isolated and hard-to-defend checkpoints and use them more effectively against the Taliban, who have pressed their insurgency since international troops ended most combat operations in 2014.

Uruzgan, which shares a border with the insurgent heartlands of Helmand and Kandahar, is a poor and largely mountainous region which Dutch and Australian troops struggled to stabilize after the Taliban regime was toppled by U.S.-led forces in 2001.

Along with northern Helmand, much of which has been abandoned to the Taliban, it constitutes one of Afghanistan’s main opium smuggling routes, providing a significant source of revenue for the insurgency.

Last month, troops pulled out of the Helmand districts of Musa Qalah and Nawzad, regrouping around a few towns near the provincial capital Lashkar Gah in what authorities said was a tactical decision to deploy forces more effectively.

(Reporting by Mirwais Harooni; writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan hit record high, U.N. says

KABUL (Reuters) – Civilian casualties of the war in Afghanistan rose to record levels for the seventh year in row in 2015, as violence spread across the country in the wake of the withdrawal of most international troops, the United Nations reported on Sunday.

At least 3,545 non-combatants died and another 7,457 were injured by fighting last year in a 4-percent increase over 2014, the international organization said in its annual report on civilian casualties.

“The harm done to civilians is totally unacceptable,” Nicholas Haysom, the head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said in a statement.

Fighting between Western-backed government forces and insurgent groups meant more non-combatants are being caught in the crossfire, investigators wrote, pointing to two developments in particular which pushed casualties up.

Heavy fighting in the northern city of Kunduz, which briefly fell to the Taliban in late September, and a wave of suicide bombs which killed and wounded hundreds of people in the capital Kabul last year were the main factors behind the rise, while elsewhere casualties fell.

“In most parts of Afghanistan in 2015, civilian casualties decreased,” Danielle Bell, director of the U.N. human rights program in Afghanistan, told a news conference.

Ground engagements were the leading cause of civilian casualties at 37 percent, followed by roadside bombs at 21 percent and suicide attacks at 17 percent.

Women and children were hard hit, as casualties among women spiked 37 percent while deaths and injuries increased 14 percent among children.

Casualties attributed to pro-government forces jumped 28 percent compared to 2014 to account for 17 percent of the total.

A 9-percent rise in civilian casualties caused by international forces was attributed largely to a U.S. air strike in October on a Doctors Without Borders hospital that killed 42 staff, patients, family members and injured another 43.

Overall 103 civilians were killed and 67 wounded by foreign forces last year, the report found.

A statement from President Ashraf Ghani accused the Taliban of violating international law. It said Afghan security forces underwent regular training to ensure the protection of civilians and were liable to investigation if any breaches occurred.

As in past years, insurgent groups like the Taliban were blamed for most civilian deaths and injuries, at 62 percent. Investigators accused insurgents of using tactics that “deliberately or indiscriminately” caused harm to civilians.

The Taliban rejected the report, describing it as “propaganda compiled at the behest of occupying forces” and said the government in Kabul and its U.S. ally were the major causes of deaths and injuries.

UN officials said that pledges from both sides to limit casualties had not been backed up.

“The report references commitments made by all parties to the conflict to protect civilians, however, the figures documented in 2015 reflect a disconnect between commitments made and the harsh reality on the ground,” Bell said.

She said the expectation of continued fighting in the coming months showed the need for both sides to take immediate steps to prevent harm to civilians.

Since the United Nations began recording civilian casualties in Afghanistan in 2009, it has documented nearly 59,000 deaths and injuries.

(Additional reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Michael Perry and Ros Russell)

Afghanistan needs long-term U.S. commitment, general says

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States must make a long-term commitment to Afghanistan to stop security there from worsening further and prevent attacks on the West by militants based there, the outgoing commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan said on Tuesday.

General John Campbell said in testimony before a congressional committee that while Afghan security forces had shown “uneven” performance in 2015 and faced major leadership problems, continued U.S. support for the Afghan government was needed to defeat the Taliban and other militant groups including al Qaeda and the Haqqani network.

“These are certainly not residual threats that would allow for a peaceful transition across Afghanistan,” Campbell said. “Ultimately the threats Afghanistan faces require our sustained attention and forward presence.”

Campbell has commanded U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan for the past 18 months and is expected to retire. President Barack Obama has chosen Lieutenant General John Nicholson to replace Campbell.

A blunt Pentagon report released in December said the security situation in Afghanistan deteriorated in the second half of 2015, with the Taliban staging more attacks and inflicting far more casualties on Afghan forces.

The security situation prompted Obama to announce in October that the United States would maintain a force of about 9,800 troops in Afghanistan through most of 2016, instead of drawing down to an embassy-based presence by 2017.

Of 407 district centers in Afghanistan, 26 are under insurgent control or influence, Campbell said, with another 94 district centers viewed as at risk at any given time.

Campbell praised Obama’s decision to maintain a U.S. troop presence throughout most of this year, and said the United States was developing a five-year vision that would avoid the traditional year-to-year planning mindset.

“Now more than ever, the United States should not waver on Afghanistan,” Campbell said. “If we do not make deliberate, measured adjustments, 2016 is at risk of being no better, and possibly worse than 2015.”

(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Desertions deplete Afghan forces, adding to security worries

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan/KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan Lieutenant Amanullah said he was ready to fight to the death to stop the Taliban making gains across the south of the country, where insurgents have already overrun a series of districts in their traditional heartland.

In November, 15 months after joining up, he deserted, one of thousands of tired and frustrated soldiers who have shed their uniforms, seriously blunting the Afghan army’s power to repel a growing militant threat.

For Amanullah, everything changed late last year when, fighting on an empty stomach and without being paid for months, militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns attacked his base from all directions in a three-day battle.

The final straw came when requests for reinforcements at the remote outpost went unanswered and colleagues bled to death around him because of a lack of medical care.

When the ambush ended, he joined three friends shedding their uniforms and walking away from the base near Kandahar, an area that has long been a Taliban stronghold.

“I joined the army so that I could support my family and serve my country, but this is a suicide mission,” said Amanullah, 28, who, like many Afghans, uses one name.

The attrition rate hits at the heart of the U.S. exit strategy in Afghanistan, which is to build a force capable of taking on the Taliban when it fully withdraws.

NATO ended its combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014, and a smaller force remains mainly training and advising Afghans. Alarmed by Taliban gains, the United States decided last year to slow the pace of withdrawing troops still there.

In 2015, the Afghan army had to replace about a third of its roughly 170,000 soldiers because of desertions, casualties and low re-enlistment rates, according to figures released by the U.S. military last month. That means a third of the army consists of first-year recruits fresh off a three-month training course.

HEAVY CASUALTIES

The turnover rate is one of the most serious problems faced by Afghan security forces, according to Michael Kugelman, a senior associate for South and Southeast Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

“These high turnover issues increase the possibility that when U.S.-led forces leave Afghanistan for good, whenever that is, they will be leaving Afghan forces unable to fend off a still-ferocious insurgency,” he said.

The United States has spent around $65 billion preparing fledgling Afghan security forces, intended to number about 350,000 personnel, for when it leaves.U.S. General John Campbell, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, told Congress in October high attrition rates are because of poor leadership and soldiers rarely getting holiday.

In some areas, soldiers “have probably been in a consistent fight for three years,” he said.

When the Afghan army in 2015 took over almost all combat operations for the first time since the Taliban were ousted, casualties rose 26 percent, according a NATO military officer. About 15,800 soldiers were wounded or killed, or almost one in 10, according to the officer, who asked not to be named.

Despite the challenges, the overall size of the Afghan army remains stable. Afghans willing to risk their lives for a basic monthly salary of about $300 a month equal those walking away.

RECRUITMENT DRIVE

The army has been running adverts on prime-time television that show inspiring images of resolute soldiers on training exercises, eating in well-stocked mess halls and with good kit.But on the frontlines, army and police deserters complain of commanders having no answer for deadly ambushes, no broader strategy for prevailing in the war, corruption among their leaders and poor food and equipment.

“Barely a day passed without gunfire, ambushes, roadside bombs,” said Farooq, a police officer from Helmand province, who quit his job three months ago. “We were treated as if we had no value and our job was to get killed.”

Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for the interior ministry, said the government was working to improve conditions for security forces and praised their work under difficult circumstances.

“We are very happy with the commitment of the police and soldiers,” he said.

Since quitting his job, Amanullah said he has been struggling to find work in a nation with one of the lowest labor participation rates in the world. He has decided to reapply for the army.

“I am hoping to work in a safer region and under better commanders,” he said. “I am just waiting for their response.”

(Editing by Mike Collett-White)

Islamic State claims suicide attack on Pakistani consulate in Afghan city

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on the Pakistani consulate in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Wednesday, stoking fears over the spread of the ultra-radical movement in Afghanistan.

Afghan officials said all three attackers and at least seven members of the security forces died during the attack by the Islamic States, which hitherto had not struck high-profile Pakistani targets in Afghanistan.

The attack, which coincided with efforts to restart the stalled peace process with Taliban insurgents and ease diplomatic tensions between India and Pakistan, added a dangerous new element to Afghanistan’s volatile security mix.

“This is a major concern for us if they carry out more attacks like this,” an Afghan security official said. “We have enough problems to deal with already.”

Nangarhar, the province in which Jalalabad is located, has become the main Afghan stronghold of Islamic State (IS), which has battled the Taliban for leadership of the Islamist insurgency, attracting many former Taliban militants.

But IS has not so far been regarded as ready to organize and mount a complex attack involving suicide bombers and gunmen hitting a major urban target, said the security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said a suicide bomber had tried to join a queue of people seeking visas to Pakistan and blew himself up after being prevented from entering the building.

Witnesses in Jalalabad, the main trade gateway to the Khyber Pass and Pakistan, said heavy gunfire and a series of explosions could be heard during a battle that lasted several hours, and residents and children from a nearby school were evacuated.

Islamic State said on its official Telegram messaging service channel that three members wearing suicide-bomb vests carried out the attack, which it said had killed dozens of people including “several Pakistani intelligence officers”.

It said two suicide attackers had been killed while a third escaped.

Pakistan condemned the attack but said all members of the consulate staff were safe, with one official slightly injured by broken glass.

The attack carried echoes of one last week on the Indian consulate in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, when a group of assailants barricaded themselves in a house and resisted security forces for about 24 hours after a suicide bombing.

Delegates from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States met this week to try to resurrect efforts to end nearly 15 years of bloodshed in Afghanistan, even as fighting with the Taliban intensifies.

In Pakistan on Wednesday, at least 14 people were killed in am explosion near a polio vaccination center in the southwestern city of Quetta.

(Additional reporting by Ahmad Sultan and Mirwais Harooni and Andrew MacAskill in Kabul, Tommy Wilkes in Islamabad and Omar Fahmy in Cairo; Editing by Robert Birsel and Miral Fahmy)

Effort to revive Afghanistan peace talks begins in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Delegates from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States held talks on Monday to resurrect a stalled Afghan peace process and end nearly 15 years of bloodshed, even as fighting with Taliban insurgents intensifies.

Senior officials from the four countries are meeting in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, to launch a process they hope will lead to negotiations with Taliban insurgents, who are fighting to re-impose their strict brand of Islamist rule and are not expected at Monday’s talks.

The Pakistani prime minister’s foreign affairs adviser, Sartaj Aziz, opened the meeting, saying the primary goal should be to convince the Taliban to come to the table and consider giving up violence.

“It is therefore important that preconditions are not attached to the start of the negotiation process. This, we argue, will be counterproductive,” he said.

“The threat of use of military action against irreconcilables cannot precede the offer of talks to all the groups.”

Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Karzai and Pakistani Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry were joined by Richard Olson, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan and General Anthony Rock, the top U.S. defense representative in Pakistan, as well as China’s special envoy on Afghanistan affairs, Deng Xijun.

Renewed peace efforts come amid spiraling violence in Afghanistan, with last year one of the bloodiest on record following the withdrawal of most foreign troops at the end of 2014.

In recent months the Taliban have won territory in the southern province of Helmand, briefly captured the northern city of Kunduz and launched a series of suicide bombs in the capital, underlining how hard Afghan government forces are finding it fighting on their own.

Peace efforts last year stalled after the Taliban announced that their founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had been dead for two years, throwing the militant group into disarray as rival factions fought for supremacy.

The Taliban, who were ousted in 2001, remain split on whether to take part in talks.

Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour’s faction has shown signs of warming to the idea of eventually joining peace talks, and other groups are considering negotiating, senior members of the movement said last week.

But a splinter group headed by Mullah Mohammad Rasool Akhund, which rejects Mansour’s authority, has dismissed any talks where a mediating role is played by Pakistan, which observers say holds significant sway among Taliban commanders holed up near its border with Afghanistan, or the United States or China.

“We have a very clear-cut stance about peace talks: all the foreign occupying forces would need to be withdrawn,” Mullah Abdul Manan Niazi, Rasool’s deputy, told Reuters on Monday.

“The issue is between the Afghans and only the Afghans can resolve it. We would not allow any third force to mediate between us.”

Officials are keen to limit expectations of a quick breakthrough at Monday’s talks.

Afghanistan has said the aim is to work out a road map for peace negotiations and a way of assessing if they remain on track.

(additional reporting by Jibran Ahmed in Peshawar; Writing by Tommy Wilkes; Editing by Robert Birsel and Mike Collett-White)