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Afghan President: More Than 2,000 Taliban Fighters Killed Last Week

Ayaz Gul

   ISLAMABAD - Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told an election rally Friday
   that more than 2,000 Taliban fighters have been killed over the past
   week and insisted his elected office is where the insurgent group must
   come to seek a decisive political settlement to the conflict.

   Ghani's assertions came nearly a week after U.S. President Donald Trump
   abruptly ended yearlong direct negotiations with the Taliban over the
   future of American troop presence in Afghanistan. That dialogue process
   had excluded the Afghan government because of insurgent opposition.

   Trump defended his move, citing a recent Taliban car bombing in the
   Afghan capital that killed 12 people, including an American soldier,
   and he vowed to intensify military operations against the insurgents.

   hani did not share details of the estimated 2,000 insurgent casualties
   he revealed in the public meeting. It was not clear whether the figures
   were inclusive of the more than 1,000 Taliban deaths the United States
   said last week it had inflicted on the insurgents in battles over the
   past 10 days.

   The Taliban has rejected the claims made by both Ghani and U.S.
   officials, though, saying their adversaries have never inflicted heavy
   losses of this magnitude, nor do they have the capacity to do so.

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