KABUL, Afghanistan — Within hours of opening an office for peace talks in the Gulf State of Qatar, Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan launched an ambush on an American convoy, and the Afghan government separately broke off talks on military cooperation with the Americans.
It was at best a rocky prelude to peace talks with the Taliban, which have collapsed repeatedly in the past. American officials have long pushed for such talks, believing them crucial to stabilizing Afghanistan after the 2014 Western military withdrawal.
Just the day before, on Tuesday, the American military had formally handed over control of security in all of Afghanistan to Afghan forces, a development that was followed hours hours later with the three sides announcing that peace talks would begin at the new Taliban offices in Doha, Qatar.
The Afghan government said it broke off talks on military cooperation with the Americans because of “acts and the statements made by the United States of America in regard to the peace process.” It did not provide further explanation, and it was unclear what the Americans had done on the peace process that angered the Afghans.
The machinations came after the Taliban formally opened their new Qatar office Tuesday evening, complete with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, after more than a year of efforts to restart peace talks.
In addition to the dispute with the Americans, Afghan government officials and Taliban representatives had strikingly different interpretations about what the new Taliban office was for.
Afghan officials said it was only an “address” where peace talks could begin. The Taliban described it in a statement as a full-blown political office, where they would meet with representatives of the international community, interact with the press, “improve relations with countries around the world” and, almost as an afterthought, meet Afghan officials — “if there is a need.” That sounded close to describing the office as an embassy rather than a venue for peace talks.
Either way, the Taliban attack on the Americans was a signal that despite the move toward peace talks, the insurgents were not letting up their military activities. The attack Tuesday night took place in the village of Shaka, just outside the sprawling Bagram Air base, when Taliban insurgents launched an ambush on a routine American military patrol, firing a rocket at an armored vehicle, according to Roshna Khalid, a spokesman for the governor of Parwan Province, where the base is located, about an hour’s drive north of the capital, Kabul. She said the attack took place just over a mile outside the base perimeter.
The international military coalition issued a statement confirming only that four coalition soldiers had been killed in an “indirect fire” attack in eastern Afghanistan, but in line with normal policy did not release the nationalities of the victims. The Bagram base is largely staffed by Americans, and is the largest base in the country with more than 20,000 persons, military and civilian.
And in the eastern city of Jalalabad, about 3 a.m. Wednesday, Afghan police units surrounded a house in the city they said was full of Taliban insurgents and demanded they surrender. They refused, and in the ensuing firefight four Taliban were killed and two wounded; two policemen were wounded as well, according to Afghan police officials.
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