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As Afghan Violence Continues, US Calls For Peace Talks 'Without Delay'

Ayaz Gul

   ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - Taliban insurgents have staged a suicide car
   bombing and armed assault against a police base in eastern Afghanistan,
   killing at least three security officers and injuring several others.

   Tuesday's attack in the border province of Paktia came hours after U.S.
   National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien renewed Washington's call for
   Afghan warring parties to urgently begin peace talks.

   The early morning insurgent raid targeted a security compound in the
   provincial capital, Gardez, an area police spokesman told VOA.

   Wahedullah Nizami said a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-filled
   vehicle at the entrance gate before two heavily armed men stormed the
   facility. Afghan forces swiftly engaged and killed the assailants after
   a brief gunfight, Nizami added.

   The Taliban took responsibility for the plotting the attack, claiming
   it inflicted heavy casualties on Afghan security forces.

   On Monday, NSA advisor O'Brien spoke to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani
   about a U.S.-led push for peace talks with the insurgents to end the
   war.

   The NSA's office tweeted that O'Brien discussed "the need for
   intra-Afghan talks to start without delay." He reiterated U.S. support
   for "a sovereign, democratic, and unified #Afghanistan that never again
   serves as a source of international terrorism."

   An Afghan presidential spokesman tweeted Tuesday that both sides
   "emphasized the importance of a cease-fire for a durable peace."

   The proposed negotiations are stipulated in the February U.S.-Taliban
   agreement that called for the insurgents to free 1,000 Afghan security
   forces they held captive in exchange for the release of 5,000 Taliban
   prisoners.

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